General Plenary 1st Committee

Chair: Jeff Levine
Vice Chair: Nathan Queener
Evaluator: Blythe
Rapporteur: Philip

GA1 Bills must address one of the three global problems outlined below. Under each topic is a list of links you may want to look at. These links should help you understand the issues and provide a starting point for writing your bills. Remember, your bill must be written from the perspective of the particular country you are representing. With that in mind many of the sites below present a Western political perspective, certain countries will definitely argue FOR arms proliferation and submarine proliferation. Since anyone can post an Internet site be careful to verify the information you are reading is accurate. Useful information for all these topics can be found at www.un.org/english.

Topic 1: Small Arms Proliferation.

The massive world industry in armaments produces a tremendous amount of weaponry every year. Much of this production is not sold to the major countries that produce them but to developing countries trying to buy power and influence. This in turn fosters conflict as these small nations, guerrilla groups and terrorists can all find a plentiful supply of weapons to wage their wars. Larger nations, however, depend on this production to fund their own research and development within their military establishments.

Topic 2: Submarines and proliferation.

Recently Iran has been suspected of purchasing aged submarines from the Russian Federation and placing them in the Persian Gulf, a body of water they consider to be rightfully theirs. The nature of a submarine's military usefulness is its stealthiness and its potential for offensive power. With the collapse of the Soviet bloc many countries are desperately trying to fund their government by selling their old technology, submarines included. What effect will this proliferation have on global stability and how will it effect regional power balances? How important is the revenue from their sale for the selling nations?

Links

Topic 3: The Strategic Defense Initiative.*

A project once removed from international politics has arisen again recently with the
resurgence of interest in the United States in a ballistic missile defense system. The U.S. seeks to
build such a system for its national defense and the defense of its allies against the missile threat posed
by rogue nations. Such a system is expressly outlawed by international treaties on nuclear disarmament.
The Russian Federation has stated that the development of such a system would freeze progress on
disarmament. How do these developments affect the mission of this committee and what can be done?

Links

*This topic will be the resolutionless topic for the General Plenary First Committee. Do not submit resolutions on this topic.