Before concentrating on your committee’s topic, it is important to know some basic things about your country. You don’t need to discover every detail of everything; this is just to get an idea of what it is that you are representing.

In the end, it is very important that you are able to answer these two questions:

• What are my current interests?

• What are some limits that I cannot cross? 

Understanding basic aspects of how your committee functions is something that is often overlooked by delegates. The type of issues your committee addresses is something you don’t need to research much to understand. However, there is more to it, especially if you are aiming for a great performance.

All committees share the same overarching goal: to achieve peace, dignity, and equality on a healthy planet. However, each committee is focused on something different and has different budgets. Therefore, when debating, we must take that into consideration and avoid discussing matters that concern other committees or proposing measures that are beyond our committee’s capabilities.

This is why researching a little bit about your committee will be beneficial. It is not necessary to conduct an in-depth investigation--just the basics. Here are some questions that would be helpful to know how to answer:

• What is your committee’s goal?

• What type of policies does it usually implement? (You can search for some examples of past actions.)

• What are its limitations? 

Once you understand how the country you are representing functions, you will need to investigate the topic or topics you will be debating during the conference.

To research this, your Study Guide—a document that your chairs will provide--will be your starting point. It is really important to pay close attention to what is explained in the Study Guide, as it forms the basis of the topic and will help you understand where the chairs want the debate to go, what will be included, and what won’t.

After carefully reading it, you can start googling to find out more. If you don’t know where to start, you can always check the sources that are normally listed at the end of the Study Guide.

After exploring different websites and gaining a better understanding of your topic, you can start reviewing previous UN resolutions on the topic. This will let you know what has already been done and the courses of action that are typically taken with regard to this issue. Moreover, the preambulatory clauses—those that provide context and appear at the beginning of each resolution—will likely reference other treaties, conventions, resolutions, and agreements that would be beneficial for you to review. 

Once you know your country’s policy, there is another key thing you will have to understand in order to be well-prepared for the conference: your allies and "enemies." Countries often have values that align more closely with some nations than others, and this needs to be reflected while you are debating. For instance, during unmoderated caucus, you need to know who is likely to support your clauses and who is probably going to want to change them. Knowing this will help you save time since you’ll already know who to approach first.

To organize this, we suggest creating a table and writing down the names of each of the countries that will be part of your committee (you can check this in the country matrix, which should be published on the conference’s website). After this, decide on four colors:

First color: Country with which you have a good relationship, and it has a similar policy on the topic.

These will be your key allies. Always ensure they are supporting you, and that you are supporting them (if they are representing their country’s policy well). These are votes you should be able to count on.

Second color: Country with which you have a good relationship, but that might want to tackle the issue differently.

Try to find common ground with them; if you don’t, consider carefully how much you confront them or if you should confront them at all.

Third color: Country with which you don’t have a good relationship, but that might want to tackle the issue the same way.

Even if this sounds odd, it can happen. For instance, Iran and Saudi Arabia don’t have a good relationship, but if the topic is freedom of religion, they are likely to have the same position. If this is the case, try to support them discreetly, or you can even use this as an advantage in the debate, arguing that addressing the issue is more important than your "rivalry."

Fourth color: Country with which you don’t have a good relationship and that won’t want to tackle the issue the same way.

These are the countries you can have fun attacking.

Something that will come in handy is a table where you list potential attacks other countries can use against you and how you can defend yourself. The attacks can be general or specific to your topic. For general attacks, you can share one table with your delegation. You don’t need to write exactly what you are going to say; instead, focus on what is most useful to you.