Six members of the Brandeis International Relations Council, a group devoted to the practice and study of politics, international relations, rhetorical speech and competitive debate, participated in the thirty-first annual Security Council Simulation at Yale University. The students spent three days playing the role of foreign diplomats, debating issues of international security and voting on a peacekeeping solution in the same manner in which the United Nations Security Council functions, explained tournament director Alexandra Pizzi '10.

Each student was previously assigned a foreign diplomat to represent throughout the conference. John Orr '12 represented Amnon Cohen in the Israeli Knesset committee. Samuel Icazy represented Anthony Cardinal Okogie, a diplomat from Nigeria, in the Conclave of the College of Cardinals. Leah Bloom '10 represented Hadash Doy Khenin in the Israeli Knesset committee. Adriel Orozco '10 represented Fritz Karl Wollwebter, the Minster of State Security in East Germany in 1953 Berlin. John Zhang '12 represented Gabon in the African Union. Alexandra Pizzi '10 represented Romania in the Council of the European Union.

The students were informed of the multiple committees they were to serve on, which acted as a simulated version of an international organization. Each student attended two committees per day, which lasted for three to four hours each, depending on how long it took the committee to arrive at a solution to a crisis of international threat, explained Orr.

"You are placed in these committees, and [while] pretending to be these countries you get to see how the world interacts and how the world of diplomacy actually works. BIRC allows you study politics more in a pseudorealist fashion," said Orozco, treasurer of BIRC.

BIRC has won numerous awards in the fall season thus far, including Best Delegation at the Boston Area Model United Nations conference held this fall at Boston University Oct. 2 to 5. Several other notable awards were given at the Boston University conference: Pizzi won Best Delegate in the African Union Peace and Security Council. Kim Falana '12 received an honorable mention in the AIDS Education Global Information System Group. Saghi Sofinzon '11 received an honorable mention in Interpol, and Benjamin Gorelick '11 received an Outstanding Delegate award in the Egyptian Cabinet. In addition, Nick Petrocchi '12 and Youness Tihm '10 won a Honorable Double Delegation at a conference at Georgetown University held this fall.

Although Brandeis did not win any awards at the Yale Conference, the conference was still a success, according to Pizzi.

In an e-mail to the Justice, Pizzi wrote, "The Yale conference gave students the opportunity to think creatively and contribute to each new crisis. I am very proud of my delegates. This was the first college conference for four of them, and they came into their respective committees with great attitudes and motivation. They jumped at the opportunities that were presented and they collaborated with other schools in writing and passing their directives."

The Yale conference differs from the conferences BIRC previously attended because it has crisis committees, where the delegates know the topic of the committee but are not informed of the crisis that will be presented. Each committee is presented with a different crisis, which the delegates then must discuss and debate, and eventually arrive at a solution.

Pizzi explained, "When you have a crisis situation, you can't just agree to a directive that you yourself would agree to. You have to make sure to stay in character."

Once the committee has debated and discussed the crisis at hand, a solution is voted on. "Remaining true to the voting procedures of the actual European Council (when deciding on foreign policies), all of our directives, press releases, and communiqués had to be approved by a unanimous vote. This gives each country a lot of power, and a lot more compromise is needed."

Orr explained how the delegates in his committee dealt with the crisis presented; they had to decide whether a hate crime against a woman should take precedence over environmental legislation. Orr said that the crisis his committee had to deal with was that "a woman got brutally raped in a hate crime against women, so we had to choose between immediate legislation for the environment or the crisis of women and gender rights. We decided on the environment because the environment in Israel is a very pressing matter because Israel has a low supply of natural water and is losing lands because of increasing desert," Orr said.

One component of Model United Nations is acting because a student's personal views on an issue often don't coincide with their assigned diplomat's views. "It's not just about international affairs; you're also acting," Erlitz said. "I don't necessarily believe in the policies of Venezuela, but I have to represent that person's government. That's why it's so much more fun to get radical governments," she said.