United Nations Vs Aliens: Camp Model UN With a Twist

Class Experience
The course teaches the basics of international relations, diplomacy and the United Nations system, including how decisions are made, the limits of the United Nations, how governments relate to each other, and important factors like how the economy influence decision-making. This all takes place against the backdrop of real and imaginary problems that governments in the world are wrestling with. The imaginary is an alien-invasion scenario. What would world governments do if they discovered that aliens are watching us, or maybe preparing an invasion of Earth? Would they be able to collaborate? Would our institutions and systems make collaboration easier or harder? Learners team up to represent a variety of world powers in this scenario and have to negotiate with the other world governments to defend the interests of their own governments. 

Each class starts with a summary of key concepts that have emerged through the play before going into the simulation. The class ends with a debrief, discussing what happened during the class and how the concepts and topics were illustrated by the learners' actions and decisions.

Day One lays out the foundations of the course, key concepts that the students need to know to play the simulation and make decisions as world leaders:
* The basic types of decisions that the UN can make, and the difference between the Security Council and the General Assembly.
* Key roles and responsibilities in each country team, and assignment of these roles between the learners (this depends on how many learners sign up for the course).
* Introduction to the world map and resources available to each country.
* Learners make their first decisions as country leaders.

Day Two::
* Instructor informs the learners about the effects of the decisions made last class, including impact on public opinion, and reactions from countries that are not played by the learners.
* Learners get introduced to some basic ideas in International Relations - like Liberalism and Realism - multilateralism and unilateralism..
* Learners make new decisions based on the new information. Should they collaborate or go at it alone?

From here, the learners will decide the order in which topics will be discussed by the they make during the simulation. For example, if the student-led security council decides to vote for a military intervention somewhere in the world on day 3, we will talk about UN security council powers that day, but not on day 4, because then something else happened. Likewise, if one country decides to unilaterally embargo another one during day 2 , we discuss the effects of economic sanctions that day. And so on. This way, the learners can immediately relate real world examples to actions they have just taken in the simulation, increasing their motivation and engagement.