Why The World Did Not Become One Communist State Last Thursday

by Nick Graham

On Thursday afternoon several PGS students attended a Model United Nations conference hosted by Springfield School at the Guildhall in Portsmouth. The majority of us submitted resolution that we wanted to debate within our councils. I was representing Norway on the security council, and proposed a resolution demanding North Korea disarm all its nuclear weapons.

Of the many resolutions that were submitted for debate at the Model United Nations conference at the Guildhall, there were bound to be some extreme and unbelievable ones. In this case the two most extreme ones were submitted to the security council by the Communist countries of China and North Korea, represented by Ross Watkins and Will Bates respectively.

China submitted a resolution recommending the creation of one-world state that would be run under a communist system in order to promote equality around the world.  His themes of worldwide equality and equal representation of for each of the former states, received mixed views. Some of the larger nations such as the USA were reluctant to give up their power, while some  of the smaller states liked the ideas. However, many states were concerned about how this equality would be ensured. The real deal-breaker for many countries was the article recommending that this world state should run on a Communist system. It was this that dissuaded the vast majority of the nations involved.

Although Ross was extremely persuasive, he had to deal with stiff opposition, especially from Tim Bustin, who was representing Germany. Ross had one loyal ally throughout - Will Bates as North Korea. Will’s way of supporting this resolution was to give passionate anti-American and anti-Western speeches. The words ‘imperialist, capitalist Westerners’ often featured in these speeches. A successful amendment removed the clause that stated it would be a Communist state, and soon afterwards the resolution itself failed, with only two countries voting for it - China and North Korea.

The other Communist resolution was even more controversial - that all countries should have the right to buy and sell nuclear weapons. It also included two anti-American clauses, which gave greater influence to North Korea’s allies,  and demanded that the USA must disarm first before it forced anyone else to. The Western nations, including the USA, violently objected at first.  The USA and its personal allies were particularly incensed. Again there were passionate speeches for the resolution by China and North Korea, and yet again firm opposition by Germany. Even though this resolution was seen by many as provocative, many states who did not have nuclear weapons voted in favour of it, and the resolution only failed by one vote!

The last event of the afternoon was the emergency debate. The news was that chemical weapons had been used on refugees leaving Syria and in refugee camps over the border. This caused a lengthy and passionate debate about who was to blame. Yet again North Korea made an anti-American speech claiming that they had orchestrated it to take the oil resources in the region. Turkey mobilised its armed forces and my resolution to mobilise UN forces to help protect the refugees and prepare for a counter-attack against Syria passed.

Although there was no-one representing Syria at the conference, they had limited support from countries including North Korea and Australia. North Korea claimed that it was the rebels who were in the wrong and that military support should be sent to the government, while countries such as Germany and Australia said that we should wait until we know who was responsible before declaring war or action against any one group. However, in the end the status was that Turkey had prepared for an invasion of Syria and UN forces were ready to help with this war. Several UN sanctions placed on Syria as well. As the debate ended, there was an attempt by Will Bates to declare war on the USA and their allies due to their preparations for war against the Syrian government. This however was swiftly refused by Will Wallace as the chair, much to everyone’s amusement.

Overall, the entire afternoon was a great success and enjoyable for everyone involved, including the Chinese and North Korean delegates (despite their defeats). We thank Springfield School for so kindly inviting us and for running the conference so hospitably; we are all looking forward to a repeat of this next year.