On the 24th of October 2023, the second-year International Relations Students at the University of Pretoria participated in the annual Model United Nations (MUN). The MUN is a compulsory component of the second-year curriculum and students need to submit position papers in advance. The position paper along with their performance at the debate forms part of their overall mark for the module. This component has been part of the IPL 220 course for more than two decades and this year formed part of the Department’s Ocean Regions Programme, funded by the NIHSS within its South African BRICS Think Tank initiative.

The topic was “Fostering Security in the Indo-Pacific: Challenges and Opportunities”. This topic was originally chosen because the maritime component of international affairs is often not highlighted as prominently as territorial issues. In fact, this has led to “sea blindness”, where the importance of the oceans is not recognized and rather relegated to the periphery. Considering this, the teaching team of this module thought it would be pertinent and relevant to have a topic that brings the oceans to the forefront. Furthermore, by bringing the oceans on the agenda, it also provides those states that are usually relegated to the sidelines of important discussions, such as small island developing states, to the center.

As soon as the semester started students were split into 31 delegations. Each delegation was appointed a mentor (a third-year or honours student volunteer) to guide them through the process. Prior to the allocation of delegations, the mentors went through extensive training to prepare them for mentoring the groups. Over the course of the semester, several delegations made contact with their embassies and visited them. The actual debate took place on the 24th of October 2023. During the course of the day, students had to deliver opening speeches, take part in moderated and unmoderated caucuses, and write draft resolutions - all while following the MUN rules of procedure. The debate was adjudicated by Rear Admiral Derick Christian (Ret.), Dr. Robin Blake, and Mr. Jaimal Anand, while Ruth Kasanga, Carika Middelburg, and Hosi Khosa acted as Chair, Vice-Chair and Secretary respectively. Overall, the debate was a huge success.

A link to a report can be found below. The aim of this report is to highlight some of the key outcomes of this experience from the perspective of the adjudicators, mentors and most importantly, the students.