DISEC (GA First Committee) in Model UN

DISEC suits you if you would rather build a coalition than defend a single line. Small states count as much as nuclear powers here: with one vote each and no veto, a draft lives or dies on the votes its bloc can gather. Most topics turn on treaties, so come ready to read up on arms control.

DISEC is the General Assembly's First Committee, one of its six Main Committees, and it takes every disarmament and international security question within the scope of the UN Charter. Each session runs in three stages: a general debate, thematic discussions, then action on the drafts.

The thematic debate is split into seven clusters: nuclear weapons, other weapons of mass destruction, conventional weapons, regional disarmament and security, outer space, other disarmament measures and international security, and the disarmament machinery. Work out which cluster your topic belongs to; the earlier texts in that cluster are your reading list.

Your conference's General Assembly rules apply, and blocs turn working papers into draft resolutions once enough delegates sign them. Know where your powers end: the Assembly recommends on disarmament, while plans to regulate armaments are the Security Council's job. Your draft urges, calls upon and recommends; it does not order.

Nuclear topics rest on two treaties: the Non-Proliferation Treaty, joined by 191 states, the five nuclear-weapon states among them, and the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, in force since 2021. When debate turns personal, you can ask for a right of reply to answer serious insults against your country, if the chair grants it.

1. 1

   Look up your country's votes on earlier texts. Past votes are the most reliable evidence of a government's real position, and the country research guide shows you how to find them in the General Assembly's vote records database.

2. 2

   Check what your country has signed and ratified. The UNODA Treaties Database lists the signatories and parties of agreements such as the Non-Proliferation Treaty and the Arms Trade Treaty. On an autonomous weapons topic, see if your government replied to resolution 78/241; the replies are annexed to report A/79/88.

3. 3

   Show the trend, not a list. In your position paper, analyse how past resolutions developed instead of listing them; on DISEC, that means showing where your government's votes on the topic have shifted.

4. 4

   Learn how a working paper becomes a draft. The beginner's guide to your first MUN walks you through the speakers' list, moderated and unmoderated caucuses and co-signatories. Before the first caucus, look up blocs, sponsors and signatories in the MUN glossary: signing a draft means you want it debated, not that you agree with it.