Last weekend I took part in a two-day UN simulation organized by and in conjunction with the larger, five-day TEIMUN, in The Hague. One of the features of the TEIMUN simulation is that there is some sort of regular, twice-a-day newspaper (the 'Teimun Daily') published for all the participants. They also asked me to write an article for this newspaper, thereby enabling me to give a bit of a critical-liberal perspective on the simulation. I am copying the article below:

On Saturday and Sunday I'm co-chairing the special meeting of the United Nations Security Council on Iran (UNSCOM In). No, the reason for the fact that you are most probaby not aware of the existence of the session has of course nothing to do with the political sensivitiy of the subject, but more because of the fact that it's more or less a kind of an appendix to the overall TEIMUN conference. To be more precise, it is a compulsory part of a 'peace & security' programme at the - by now - notorious Rijksuniversiteit Groningen. Even though all of us are of course excited about taking part in this simulation, I guess that the main difference between 'us' and the rest of the people walking around at this comfortable, but somewhat desolate spot somewhere between Den Haag and Delft, will be our familiarity with the way these 'Models' work, as practically all of us are newbies in this matter. At least to me, such events have always seemed a bit enigmatic, and my first experiences as being the chair have not really taken away this feeling. To the contrary, I'm afraid to say that I have become even more confused about the character and purpose of such models. Nevertheless, I will be the first to admit that this is largely due to my own bias: being a political liberal, I can't help getting itchy whenever I encounter an overload of rules. Because rules, ladies and gentlemen, as a rule, impose restrictions on people's freedom! Sometimes this can be for the better, as it may canalize people's efforts into directions that may be better for the general good, but unfortunately rules are way too often the product of exaggerated precaution and severe distrust of the free choice of individuals. While rules are supposed to serve the people, lawmakers of all kinds of sorts are generally too easily inclined to solve problems - often created by previous rules - by new rules. By imposing too many rules on people and groups, genious ideas and initiatives, or potential talents, will likely be suppressed.

I don't intend to make this piece some sort of political pamphlet, but I hope you'll understand that when I attended the GA on Friday afternoon, and I experienced how all the rules made people to be occupied with procedural affairs for over 30 minutes without any substantial discussion on any of the interesting themes on the agenda, my itchiness became almost unbearable! It seemed as if the actual playing with the rules is partly the purpose of Model's like this; moreover, almost as if it serves as some kind of training camp on how to deal with our Kafkaian world full of bureaucratic mazes. My a priori negative stance to rules is also probably the reason for the fact that when I received the draft rules of procedure that we were supposed to work with during our own Model, I almost instinctively cut down on - for example - all the different sorts of 'points' and 'motions', and - together with my colleague-chair - all just put them under the same denominator with one and the same procedure. I guess that when reading this, all you MUN-fanatics will start shouting 'Heresy! Heresy!', and come down to our room and ritually burn me at the stake (though it may take you some time to decide over it collectively, considering that there's not such an article in your RoP laying down the decision-making process for such situations), but I'm taking the risk. Luckily enough for you though, my sincerely well-respected friend and TEIMUN Chairman Paul clamped down on this 'preposterous' behavior of ours on time and made sure that the RoP were turned back into much of their original form... Of course the weekend is still young and it may very well be that I'll change my mind and start appreciating the rich nuance and the 'game' associated with the rules. But in case I don't, I'll probably be the person you'll recognize by seeing me walking around with a somewhat disgruntled face expression, my freedom-pining soul being molded into a quite literal form of a "Model's Straightjacket"!