The Security Council of the United Nations is an agency perpetually in transition. Envisioned as a coordinating group for allied armed forces, it soon became a contentious chamber that rarely agrees to exercise its full military and political muscle. Off the coast of Somalia, pirates take advantage of a political power void to threaten world shipping, posing a problem unusually international in its scope and effects. Delegates will consider the legal and political implications of joint intervention or a peacekeeping mission, as well as the appropriate response to nations that unilaterally act to impose order in the region. Addressing a centuries-old problem, will the committee choose to flex its forgotten muscle?

As the Council considers its relationship to the past, it must also keep an eye towards the problems of the future. Disturbing revelations of government computer networks' vulnerability to individual and state actors suggest that cyberwarfare will play an increasingly important role in conflicts to come. How should the Security Council respond to this new kind of engagement? Delegates will have to balance outward opposition to cyberwarfare with national interests in spying and subterfuge in approaching this new kind of cold war.

Chair: Sam Roth,