A United Nations society for aspiring Belgian diplomats, the MUN Society Belgium (MSB), made up of students from universities throughout Belgium, has won Harvard WorldMUN's World Student Diplomacy Championships. The win marks the group's tenth victory at the competition, and the third in a row.
Every year, Harvard's Model United Nations (MUN) brings more than 2,000 university students from some 100 countries together to tackle current issues that are also on the United Nations' agenda. The diplomacy competition was held in Paris this year.
For the third time in a row, and the tenth time overall, MSB walked away as diplomatic champions. However, it is not as easy as they make it look.
Due to the Covid-19 crisis, the past couple of years saw the competition taking place online. PR Director of MSB Emma Van Roy told The Brussels Times that while some teams chose to take that time to prepare for the next in-person competition, MSB competed each year. This meant that this year, teams participated who had prepared a year or two in advance. Additionally, MSB's team has around 50% turnover each year as students graduate.
Despite numerous challenges, MSB showed up and once again proved the diplomatic talent of Belgium. "No one has won the world title more than twice, and definitely not in a row," Van Roy explained, to give perspective into the effort that goes into being 10-time champions.
Credit: MSB
Van Roy attributes their success to the team: "It's because of the diversity of our team, we are not all political science students and we come from different universities throughout Belgium."
While the concept of MUN is not widely known in Belgium, it is well-known in other parts of the world and the MSB team finds themselves up against ivy-league schools. While it may seem intimidating, the Belgian team always arrives with "big smiles and try to be as diplomatic as possible" – Which, Van Roy stated, "has proven to be a winning formula – 10 times already." As the team has often represented Belgium, and came out victorious, they have on more than one occasion met King Phillipe.
During the four-day conference, the teams are assigned to countries, other than their own, which are represented in the UN. They are then tasked to tackle relevant topics and issues that those countries are faced with today. "Our team was assigned countries like Guatemala, Morocco, Cape Verde and Norway," explained MSB president Janne Dehouck. "Then, either individually or in pairs, we are placed in committees that also exist within the UN and start preparing for the debates."
Credit: MSB
After the four days of discussions, debates, and social events, the committees are awarded titles, either individually or in pairs. An example of a title is the 'best diplomat' which is someone who gave convincing speeches and was able to bring the group together to reach a consensus.
The winning team is the one with the most individual or dual diplomacy awards. The team is also judged on its knowledge of the topics, its leadership, public speaking, the strength of negotiation and its ability to find compromises.
"What is unique about Harvard's MUN is how close it is to a real diplomatic experience," explained Dehouck. "On one hand, there are the formal committee sessions and the UN flow of debate. On the other, Harvard organised social events such as club nights and galas where we could make friends, allies and network," – which she explained could help in the debates.
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MSB competes three times a year, in October, February and in March. The Harvard MUN World Student Diplomacy Championships is the last one, as afterwards around half the team prepares to graduate and a new round of applications and recruitment begins.
The next application round on the MSB website begins on 2 April and runs until 23 April. After an assessment of the applications, MSB arranges personal interviews with the students.
