Historical Committees in Model UN

You will enjoy a historical committee if you like history and primary sources and can set aside what happened next: arguing the Soviet position in a 1956 Council means arguing it without knowing how the Cold War ended. It also suits you if you want to test a different choice and rethink how diplomacy played out. Plan for more research than a current topic needs, because every source you rely on must date from before the freeze date.

A historical committee freezes a real body on a set day. American Model United Nations' Historical Security Council in 2026, for example, is set in 1956 and works only from information available up to 1 March 1956. Everything in the room follows that date, including who sits there and how many votes a decision needs. The Security Council had eleven members, not fifteen, and needed seven votes for a decision, not nine, until amendments to the UN Charter came into force on 31 August 1965.

History runs as written until your committee convenes. You argue from your government's point of view at the time, though the course it actually took was not necessarily the wisest. At American Model United Nations the historical council uses the same rules of procedure as the current one, and its staff must approve any action with effects outside the UN.

Seats follow the date too. The Soviet Union held the seat Russia holds today until December 1991, and a General Assembly set in 1962 seats 110 states, so many of today's members have no seat at all.

A historical cabinet or summit can also run as a crisis committee, where you play a character instead of a country. Some are set as far back as the BC era.

1. 1

   Fix your date and your seat. The Security Council's list of elected members gives every term since 1946, so you can see who sat on the Council in your year, and its resolutions page, ordered by year, shows what it had already decided by then.

2. 2

   Read what people read at the time. Periodicals and other primary sources from three to five years before your year give you a better feel for the period than later histories. The UN Library has digitized the main organs' documents from 1946 to 1993, and the country research guide shows you how to search the UN Digital Library by country, topic and document type.

3. 3

   Date your position paper to the freeze date. The record and proposals paragraphs that the position paper guide walks you through both stop on that day.

4. 4

   If it runs as a crisis, learn both tracks. The guide to crisis committees shows you how collective directives differ from private notes. In a historical cabinet, your portfolio powers are the real powers of your office on the freeze date, no more.

5. 5

   Learn the voting rule of your year. In a Council set before the 1965 amendments, a permanent member's no is still a veto. Check in the MUN glossary which votes count as substantive, because only those can be vetoed.