UpDate - Vol. 14, No. 9, Page 3
October 27, 1994
Course focus is diplomacy

     In 1993 it was Austria; in 1994, Bangladesh. On each occasion, 12
specially selected University of Delaware students in their junior or
senior years undertook an intensive spring semester course in the
structure and practice of the United Nations and a near-immersion in
the politics, foreign policy and cultural-historical background of
that UN member country.
     According to Philip Benesch, instructor and faculty adviser in
political science and international relations, the students were
enrolled in that department's Model United Nations course, which
culminates with full participation in a five-day, New York City
conference simulating UN committee debates. The conference is attended
by 2,000 students from U.S., Canadian, East Asian and European
universities and colleges.
     A highlight of the students' preparation for the conference was a
very detailed briefing given by diplomats from the assigned countries,
he said. In 1993, this involved a day trip for UD participants to the
Austrian embassy in Washington. In 1994, it was a special visit to the
Bangladeshi mission at the United Nations.
     On both occasions, Benesch said, briefings extended over a four-
hour period, and students had access to a range of diplomatic
specialists, including the Austrian defense, economic and
cultural/human rights attaches. This year, the students were
particularly privileged to be greeted by the Bangladeshi ambassador to
the UN, Reaz Rahman, who has served as foreign minister to his country
and is considered a very influential person in international
diplomacy.
     According to Benesch, the course is designed to broaden the
understanding that university-level students have of other countries
and to require them to act in the role of diplomatic advocates of the
assigned nation. Students become expert in the assigned country's
stance on a particular issue, and they develop position papers that
have to be approved by the embassy or the UN mission of that state.
     In the process of mastering policy details, he added, students
acquire significant research skills. Before the course, few students
had experience with e-mail or the Internet. Soon, however, the
capacity to access UN documents over the past 20 years, State
Department or other international press releases and South Asian or
international "bulletin boards" and newsgroups convinced even the
computer-shy that the use of electronic sources was a vital supplement
to traditional library research.
     Students, Benesch said, also took the initiative to monitor more
than The New York Times and The Economist, which were required, and
began regularly to consult other European, American and (where
language permitted) South Asian news sources. The reports of the U.S.
government's Foreign Broadcast Information Service also proved
particularly helpful.
     The UN simulation was held at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in the heart
of Manhattan. This year, Benesch said, the conference took place over
Spring Break.
     "As the 1993 and 1994 faculty adviser to the UD delegation, I was
most impressed to see students able to undertake five demanding, 14-
hour days of simulated diplomatic negotiation and still have energy
enough to socialize and sample New York's night life," Benesch added.
     On the last day of the conference, plenary sessions were held in
the United Nations building itself, with UD students sitting in the
official seats of the Bangladesh delegation to the UN General Assembly
and the UN Economic and Social Council.
     Applications to participate in the 1995 Model United Nations
Course (POSC 365) are now being accepted. Students should complete a
form available in 347 Smith Hall, and return it by Nov. 1.