Position Papers

When you get placements for a MSUMUN committee, you are given a position (country or character), issue(s) to attend to, and a background guide for overview over the committee. For a General Assembly you will likely want to start researching information regarding topics presented in the background guide, your country’s perspective on those topics, and potential solutions to the issues provided based off your countries perspective. All of this research and planning should culminate into a document called a position paper. What makes up a position paper will be covered below, however it is critical for preparing for a MSUMUN General Assembly committee!

Once you write your position paper, please submit it to your MSUMUN committee’s email. Committee email’s can be found by clicking the contact button of your Chair/Crisis-Director on your committee pages, you can access those here

For MSUMUN XXIII Position Papers Due For Feedback March 8th and Position Papers Due for Awards by March 15th

As you prepare for the conference, you will research the topics that are discussed in your committee’s Background Guide. You will use your research to write your position paper discussing each of the topics, and within each topic, you will: describe the issue and its context, explain what has been done about the issue in the past, and then give specific proposals on how to address the topic going forward. Each question should be answered in your position paper while also explaining the work of the international community and the positions of your nation.

Example of a position paper where a delegate is representing the Netherlands in the World Intellectual Property Organization

MSUMUN GA/Specialized Position Paper Requirements

When making your position paper, please try and fulfill these requirements:

  • Cite all sources you use, this includes not only facts and statistics but also any background information that you gathered from websites.

  • As a general guideline, try and answer these 3 questions in their own paragraphs!

    • What is the issue and how does it affect you?

    • What has been done about this issue in the past, maybe by your country?

    • What can you do to address this issue?

  • Please include your name, the nation or body you’re representing, your school, and your committee name at the top of your position paper