MUN Research Binder

15 Things Every Delegate Should Have in their Research Binder
There are a few reasons why an MUN delegate should have one:
 It actually speeds up research. It takes less time and brain power to learn something that is
organized well.
 You don’t lose time by turning to the same sources over and over.
 It’s useful during the sessions. Having your research readily available in committee is very
helpful. While you are preparing a working paper, you can refer to your notes in your
research binder.
You can organize your binders by starting from the “big picture” — conference, committee, and
country — then zooming in on the details — topics, policies, and solutions.
Conference
1. Awards Policy. If you’re trying to win an award, then you should know what the conference values
and what your chair is looking for.
2. Rules of Procedure. Rules tell you how committee is going operate, and what you can and cannot
do. They differ for every conference — not just what the rules are, but how they are applied.
Committee
3. Your committee’s actual UN website. The goal of a committee is to pass a resolution, which
depends on what a committee can and cannot do. You want to understand your committee’s
mandate (why it was created), powers (what it can do), organization (how it fits into the UN and the
larger international community), and membership (who’s in it).
4. UN Charter. If you are in a GA, ECOSOC, or Security Council committee, then the source of your
committee’s power is the UN Charter.
Country
5. CIA Factbook. Every MUNers go-to source for essential information on their country. You want to
know your country’s location, neighbors, population size, type of government, type of economy,
trade partners, and the international organizations it’s a part of. Not knowing this information as
your country’s representative can be potentially embarrassing.
6. Wikipedia. Information on your country’s history and its recent controversies. There should be
articles on your topic, too. Just take note of any potential issues that are listed at the topic of
Wikipedia pages, e.g. “This article needs additional citations for verification.”
Topics
7. Background Guide. Either you, another delegate, or your chair will inevitably refer to something
written in the committee’s background guide during a conference. Also, what your chair has written
about is what he’ll focus on in committee. Use that knowledge to craft speeches and operative
clauses that grab the chair’s attention.
8. News Articles. You want to know the latest news on your topics, as well as your own country. The
simplest way to do this is to run searches on Yahoo! News and Google News, and print out the
headlines. BBC Online also features easy-to-use timelines and profiles on your issues and country.
Large publications like the New York Times and Wall Street Journal also have in-depth coverage on
their websites.
9. Resolutions, Treaties, and Conventions. Before you can do anything on the topic, you need to
know what’s already been done. You can find past resolutions through the UN documentation
center, although it can be difficult to navigate. Once you’ve found the latest resolution, the
perambulatory clauses should direct you to other resolutions.
Policies
10. Speeches and Press Releases. These are the ways that policy-makers set policy. Be sure to use
speeches and press releases from people in the executive branch of your country’s current
government (President, Prime Minister, Foreign Minister / Secretary of State,
Ambassadors). Legislators and judges may say something different, but as a representative of your
country, you work for the Head of State / Head of Government. Start with the website for your
country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs / Department of State.
11. Voting Record. Actions speak louder than words. If your country’s leaders have not clearly stated
a policy on your topic, then you can infer it from how your country has voted on past resolutions,
treaties, and conventions. Note that recent speeches may indicate a change in policy away from
however your country has voted in the past, especially if your government has changed
administrations. Nonetheless, you still want to know how your country’s past actions on the topic,
for your own knowledge, and in case anyone asks.
Solutions
12. Op-Ed and Blog Articles. These writers are coming from a personal or journalistic perspective, but
they can still give you ideas that you can propose in committee and use in resolutions. You can start
with large publications like the New York Times or Wall Street Journal, but don’t forget about blogs,
too.
13. Think Tanks. Organizations like RAND are paid to come up with solutions to the topics you discuss
in Model UN. Think tank publications have more depth and evidence than an opinion article, but
they’re typically not as dense as an academic paper. They are a great starting point for proposing
potential solutions.
14. Academic Papers. These are tough reads and the information is way too dense for Model UN. But
they are probably the most insightful and rigorously edited sources you will find online. You can use
Google Scholar to find papers. Read the abstract and skim the paper for ideas that you can use in
committee.
15. Your Ideas. Include in your binder your position papers, working papers, notes, thoughts, as well
as blank lined paper – Don’t rely on a conference to bring enough paper for draft resolutions and
note passing. You can do all the research you want, and you can be really fast and efficient at it, but
none of that matters until you can explain in your own words.

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15 Things Every Delegate Should Have in their Research Binder

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