Strengthening Global Citizenship of Kurdistan-Iraq Youth
Model United Nations 2021

• News
• Mohammed Obaid Shwani, an International Program Coordinator at Soran University, visited UCF SPSIA on February 11th, 2020. During the visit, Mr. Shwani met with SPSIA faculty as well as KnightMUN club to exchange the experience of organizing Model United Nations.

• Five educational modules on global citizenship have been developed by Dr. Nikola Mirilovic and Miroslav Shapovalov, a PhD Candidate at SPSIA and delivered to the members of Soran Faculty between November 2020 and January 2021.

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Description

Model United Nations (MUN) are educational conferences which offer its participants an opportunity to experience the parliamentary procedure and decision-making process employed by the United Nations. As simulations of the world’s largest international organization, MUNs offer a friendly way to expose young people around the world to the international community and help them develop the habit of debating international issues and the skills necessary for it: public speaking, negotiation, and consensus-building. Most importantly, a Model United Nations helps build a sense of belonging to the greater global community – a necessary prerequisite for responsible global citizenship.

The recent cooperation between UCF and Soran University in Iraqi Kurdistan seeks to bring this experience to Iraq by organizing the country’s first National Model United Nations. Possible thanks to the support of the International Research and Exchanges Board (IREX), the conference seeks to bring together one hundred participants from across Iraq. For three days the students will assume the role of country delegates, take part in the parliamentary proceedings, and debate issues of international importance while practicing policy research, negotiation and the drafting of resolutions.

The joint project consists of two parts. In addition to organizing the conference, UCF School of Politics, Security, and International Affairs also provides Soran University with educational modules on the topics pertaining to Global citizenship. Delivered to Soran faculty in the form of zoom lectures by Dr. Nikola Mirilovic, the materials cover the basics of international relations theory, processes of Globalization such as migration, international activism and the role of international organizations in shaping the global community. The lectures are accompanied by training exercises and examples of discussions the Soran faculty can administer to its students. The goal of the modules is to help introduce new global topics to Soran students which will help them prepare for participation in the Model United Nations conference. The “Global Citizenship” modules have been successfully delivered in January 2021, the conference is expected to take place in the Fall.

The project is funded through an international collaboration grant from the International Research and Exchanges Board, the Soran University