Hands on the Pulse of the
Security Council
Recently we had a highly illuminative seminar on international law at
the Moscow University for Humanities, worthy of a wider audience. It was conducted in the
form of a ‘business game’. I headed the group of students representing a virtual state
claiming some virtual territory from another virtual state, also represented by a group of
students. The third party represented the Security Council (SC) of the United Nations.
According to the scenario, our adversaries had complained to the Security Council about
our threats to them with military force. The game itself was to represent the
consideration of the problem in the SC.
All of this was supposed to make us understand what such procedures really look like. That
was a success, but in a somewhat different sense than the old professor probably had
expected.
The most important events took place during the break rather than during the
‘session’. We, representatives of the aggressive power, left the classroom and met a
girl from the Security Council party in the doors.
‘Er’, we said. ‘Well, probably, we’ll understand each other… You know, we are
friends and so on… Naturally, we cannot expect you to make a decision against us’.
‘You pass over half of the money to me’ she replied without any sign of hesitation,
though no money seemed to be involved at all.
We headed to the refreshment room and met another SC representative there. We provided a
lunch for her, hoping to buy her vote this way, when a representative of our adversaries
and our own good friend entered.
‘Well’, we four said, staring in his face. ‘You know, we would not talk if we were
you. You’d better comply, otherwise we will drop a nuclear bomb on you.’
Then we returned to the class with clear consciences and light hearts.
By Pavel Stroilov,
Moscow University for Humanities,
2nd year student |