Message from the Secretary General

Honourable prospective delegates,

It is my privilege to welcome all of you to the 4th edition of Bucharest International Student Model United Nations (BISMUN), the largest MUN Conference in Romania, which will be held between 21-26 March 2012 at the Palace of Parliament and the Faculty of Law of the University of Bucharest.Since the first edition in 2009, BISMUN Association has constantly strived to improve the quality of the conference with each passing year and few can say that it has failed this purpose, as the experience acquired in previous editions and the innovative ideas of the organizing team have managed to exponentially increase the magnitude and reputation of BISMUN during the past years.

This viewpoint which was created and developed in the Association was also adopted by the us, as the Secretariat team, in designing the academic aspects of BISMUN 2012. We therefore not only tried to consolidate its strong points and develop the mechanisms which have worked in the past but also innovate and bring an element of novelty in the 2012 edition.

The theme of the conference, “Human Security and Positive Liberty” was our starting point. While it is a somewhat atypical theme for an MUN as it has largely philosophical concepts at its heart instead of an empirical basis, it constitutes a framework for the development and exchange of ideas which goes beyond a mere situational analysis, instead exploring the theoretical substratum and core of the problems on the contemporary global agenda.

Our innovations did not stop here however. And this will be no ordinary Historical Committee. Because historical treaties are written in stone, we will not ask delegates to recreate the two Westphalian Treaties, but we will assign each of them specific objectives which they must fulfill, custom-tailored to their represented countries. This approach to an MUN Committee is new at BISMUN, and it will require developed negotiation and persuasion skills from the delegates.

For those of you who have already attended MUNs and generally know what to expect we encourage you to apply and expect to take part in much more than an ordinary MUN, because BISMUN is significantly more than that. It is not a mean to achieve something but an end in itself. Besides the high academic and proffesional level it will create friendships and bonds which will not be lightly severed in the years to come. To you, more experienced applicants, we promise that after these 6 day of late March you will be imbued with the spirit of BISMUN and it will leave you with an axiological mark which few MUNs can take pride in possesing.

For those of you who have not attended any previous MUNs we encourage you to apply and to have high expectations. During the 6 days of the conference you will debate, you will negotiate, you will forge alliances and you will develop strategies, you will defend positions and you will write, vote and pass resolutions. But during these days you will notice that something strange will begin to happen. Uncounciously, you are developing a feeling both unknown and unexpected and what you originally thought would be a game now suddenly appears to you as an actual and tangible responsibility and challenge. You will feel then and there that you have the opportunity to change the world, to design it after what you consider valuable and righteous and although at the end of it all you will remember that it was only a simulation you must never let go of the feeling you felt in those days.

For many decades from now perhaps you will be in a leadership position of the international community and perhaps you will take part as a delegate in a Committee which today you are only simulating. And if this would indeed be the case we ask you to do only this: look back and remember the days when you were at BISMUN and you put yourself in the position of another state. Remember how hard you fought for values which were not yours by culture or by social endowment and how you learned to treasure and defend the positions of others although they were not yours by nature. And if you will do this, if you will act as if you were unmindful of national contingencies and you will respect the principles of reciprocity, of mutuality, with indifference to the background of other persons, only then will you manage to bring to the surface the values which will guide individuals accross the breadth of the entire world toward a brighter future. And truly in that moment, BISMUN itself will have also given a gift to the international community.

I am looking forward to seeing all of you in March,
With the very best regards,
Alexandru Volacu,
Secretary-General of BISMUN 2012