Crisis Simulation

Hi! This page is aimed at giving prospective delegates the best idea of what BMUN Crisis Simulations are like. If you’re new to the Crisis type of committee, it probably would be an excellent idea to go through these posts!

What is Crisis Simulation?

If you’re new to the entire Crisis experience, then this is a perfectly good place to start asking questions. Hopefully, this brief explanation will make it more clear, but as Chairs we’ve found that the best way for delegates to discover Crisis is to experience it firsthand. And most of all, due to the unpredictable nature of the Crisis events, there isn’t an unfair advantage for those who’ve done many Crisis Simulations before. This makes Crisis very user-friendly.

In Crisis, you will be acting as a member of your nation’s Cabinet, or the chief executive body that calls the shots during emergency situations. So, you might be the Minister of Defense, or the Minister of Finance. Depending on your assignment, your ministry will have a primary role in regulating some part of the state. In that way, the Minister of Defense would have an important part in military affairs, while the Minister of Finance makes sure that the economy is healthy. Pretty simple so far, right?

You can probably already guess that at times, different Ministers may have opposing goals (for example, the Minister of Defense wants to buy more tanks, while the Minister of Finance may want to use the same money to invest in infrastructure). This is certainly true, both in the real world as well as our Crisis Simulation. However, keep in mind that the success of the Cabinet and the state relies on cooperation among the Ministers. Therefore, while the Minister of Defense may be the one that needs to officially sign off on a military action, there’s absolutely nothing stopping the Minister of Finance from discussing (and opposing) military policy.

During your Crisis as a Minister, you will receive many different types of information from the outside world. These can be largely broken down into the following types:

News Reports- As things happen in the world, news agencies such as CNN, BBC, NY Times, and others will quickly move to cover these stories, publishing them for everyone to see. Ministers should expect to have to react to the information contained in these reports. Sample News Report
Foreign Communications- Other Cabinets, international bodies, or even domestic constituents may choose directly communicate with your Cabinet. These are generally “secret”, in that only your Cabinet (or even just the Minister that it’s addressed to) can see the communique, but please keep in mind that spies have been known from time to time to access supposedly safe documents. Sample Foreign Communique
Internal Communications- Your own ministry may contact you regarding specific information that they either feel that you should consider, or that you have requested. A common form of this are intelligence updates, from your national intelligence apparatus. In general, these are “secret” documents, but can be intercepted by the enemy. Sample Internal Communique

What Do I Do in Crisis?

So now that you’ve gotten word that things are happening in the world, it’s time to discuss and decide on a course of action. Debate in Crisis is normally informal, since speaking lists and rules just get in the way. As Chairs, we will start out in a “Round Robin” format, where we go in a circle and everyone gets to speak. However, we’ve found from past experience that the delegates themselves will create their own rules for speaking, and as long as we feel that the rules allow for everyone to participate we certainly allow it.

There won’t be any form of voting, as in other committees, and decisions are made based on group consensus (that is, no one strongly objects to the idea). For sake of protocol, at least the Prime Minister (or equivalent) and relevant minister(s) must sign off on the idea.

What types of actions you may decide to take are completely up to you, as you are the heads of state. So, from ordering covert intelligence actions to full-scale military strikes, from diplomatically wooing other Cabinets to taking advantage of global opinion, really anything is possible to request. Keep in mind though, that the probability of it working according to your plan is by a totally different calculation, and if you ask for the impossible you shouldn’t expect it to work.

The request itself is simple enough. Just write down what you wish to do on a sheet of paper, and submit it to your Chairs. Hopefully, you will see some effect in a half hour or so, as your orders get transmitted to the correct departments and such.

How Do I Research in Crisis?

Compared to other committees, it may seem daunting to research for Crisis. After all, you (and any other delegate) don’t even know what’s going to happen in committee. Maybe the economy will crash. Maybe something will explode. Who knows?

Don’t worry, we’re pretty nice and we don’t expect you to study everything under the sun. Here’s what you might want to look into:

-Your (minister’s) personal political history. What has he or she supported in the past? What are some of his or her pet projects? Pet peeves?
-Some topics that are relevant to your department. So if you’re the Minister of Finance, you may want to do a brief study on the state and policies of your economy. If you’re the Minister of Defense, knowing the current capabilities and goals of your military would be helpful. Most likely, if you’re the Minister of X, and X comes up, the rest of the Cabinet (and your Chairs) will be looking to you for your expertise.
-Historical events. As your Chairs, we don’t make up Crisis events from out of the blue. Instead, we look at the historical record and identify trends and continuities. From these, we mix and match different histories to come up with a Crisis event that is new, but not unexpected. Knowing how previous historical crises played out will be useful in identifying solutions.

Crisis also requires delegates to think on their feet, but this DOES NOT translate to a free liscence to make things up. All your Chairs are well-researched in their respective countries. Some have spent painful semesters hammering away at rather thick material, and other Chairs have even studied abroad in the nation that you’ll be representing. If we suspect something to be off-policy, we will approach you privately and ask about your sources.

How Do I Win Awards in Crisis?

Most of the evaluation of your performance will be done by the Chairs in your particular Cabinet, because they see you in action the most.  Here’s a breakdown of what they may be looking for:

• Position Papers- While they aren’t the dominant factor in evaluation, the grades will be taken into account if the Chairs aren’t sure where two seemingly equal delegates stand.  In this way, the Position Paper grades act as the “tie-breaker” for those close calls.
• Contribution to the Cabinet- The most important people in Crisis have one thing in common, that they are essential to the operation of the Cabinet.  Their roles may differ wildly, from quiet back-room negotiators, friendly group facilitators, and loud demagogues.  We understand that people have different styles of contribution, so we evaluate everyone in their contributions.
• Research and Policy- Winning delegates must also show that they’ve done significant research, and follow it accordingly.  So if you’re about to go off and do something quite off policy, then you ought to have a pretty good reason for doing it (and privately let your Chairs know).