Uncharted Waters:

The Inter-Governmental Maritime Consultative Organization (today known as the International Maritime Organization) held its second session in 1960 after a long-delayed establishment process. As a specialized agency (though this committee will be running as a general assembly) within the still-new international system that was the United Nations, their mission was and is to regulate international shipping and to protect those ships and the waters they passed through. Right off the dock, there were two very pressing issues for the member states to deal with. The first was updating the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS), which the UN had agreed to take on. Having not been updated since 1948, new technological advancements made during the Second World War had yet to be fully addressed, and there was also the growing issue of how to best safeguard nuclear material as the arms race increased demand and more countries began to turn towards this technology. The other important issue faced by the committee was to begin writing environmental standards, as the world was beginning to become increasingly aware that shipping traffic as well as the pollution it creates have the potential to wreak havoc on marine environments. Delegates will discuss these issues and more all against the backdrop of the early Cold War, trying to balance complex political forces and necessary change as they try to set the fledgling IMCO on the right course towards its future.