Crisis Committee Position Papers

Conferences will usually require some variation of the following heading in the top left corner of your paper. 

The Person's Name

Committee Name

Names of the Delegates

Here's an example.

Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan

U.S. Cabinet: The Great War

Paige Turner

What is it?

The topic description shows your understanding of the topic, how your committee is relevant to it, and the perspective of your delegation. While writing this section, you should include the bias and perspective of your delegation (for example, downplaying one of the issues or completely ignoring it). An effective position paper will outline enough background that someone with no previous knowledge on the topic would be able to get a good understanding of it. You want to make sure that you include more information that what was said in the background guide so your chairs know you did research!

What should I cover?

• Historical Background: Outline the key events and developments that led to the evolution of the topic. This will also help you get a better understanding of the different systems/stakeholders involved in the topic, which will allow for more comprehensive solutions.

• Current Situation: Restate the relevant parts of the current situation that your delegation will address and regards as important. This is a great way to show the bias of your delegation by excluding or including different elements. 

• Key Issues: The key issues that are mentioned and describe give the chairs an idea of what issues you are going to address in your proposed solutions and what you are going to bring up during the conference. This is also another important section to consider the bias/perspective of your committee.

In general assembly committees this section covers one of the following: past UN action or past international action. Or it will be divided up into two sections: past UN action and country policy.

This should be a majority of your research paper and usually is around twice as long as your other sections.

This section is one of the more rare ones and isn't always included in every conference.

Where do I cite?

This references section (that is always at the end of your paper) should have a list of all of the sources that you use. But you should also cite where you mention information that you got from a source, whether that's through footnotes or in line citations.

What type of citations do I use?

Usually either conferences let you choose the citation type (they will state this or not specify a preference for a citation type) or want you to use MLA formatting. Your safest bet is to utilize the same type of citations that the background guide uses. If you are allowed to, we would recommend using footnotes as they are often easier to use.

Important Reminders

• Cite all of the external sources of information you use including statistics, past resolutions, and maps!

• Make sure all of your citations are consistent!

• Avoid fluff! Everything you put in your position paper should communicate your delegation's perspective effectively and directly. Try to avoid convoluted language as well as irrelevant sentences.

• Keep it organized! Use paragraph breaks to your advantage. Make sure you have relevant topic sentences for each paragraph. Try to make sure each idea and section of your proposals are in their own paragraph. 

• Always double check! Remember to leave time to double check your citations, grammar, and structure before you turn it in.

• Use the paper as a speech! During debate, a good position paper will also help you to stick to your country's policies. You can easily use it to give speeches especially if you organize the paper effectively.

• Emphasize bias! Make sure the paper reflects the bias of your delegation by including/excluding specific subtopics and solutions. For example, if your country really doesn’t like nuclear energy, spend more time talking about potential environmental consequences than its benefits.