Disarmament and International Security Committee DISEC

The Disarmament and International Security Committee (DISEC) is the First Committee of the United Nations General Assembly. The committee concerns itself with questions of international importance regarding the security and demilitarization throughout all countries and regions, while ensuring that citizens around the globe remain protected. In particular, DISEC is concerned with the regulation of all member states’ armaments with particular care taken to work towards the UN’s goal of total disarmament. This year, the thematic topic of DISEC will be focused on the ways in which warfare has evolved in the 21st century and how the UN can modernize to utilize and regulate these tools to protect civilians.

Topic A: Drones

Drones, also known as “unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs)” or “unmanned aircraft systems (UASs),” have changed the technological landscape in times of war and peace. Drones can be used for more militaristic purposes, such as surveillance or the deliverance of humanitarian aid, but they can also be used for package transport or agriculture management. The variety of usages of drones makes them complex to regulate as different usages might cause different levels of regulation. As drones have only been around for a little over twenty years, the landscape of regulation and limitation is young and new technology can create uncertainty across the global stage. This topic will give delegates the opportunity to think about how drone usage has impacted different industries and how different usages of drones might need different types of regulation to promote safety and security for all.

Topic B: Cyber Warfare

The avenues of war have changed since the advent of computers and its heavy integration into daily life to include cyberspace. Intelligence gathering and sharing can now be done in milli-seconds, causing new complex threats to national security–as evidenced by the leak of NSA documents in 2013 perpetrated by Snowden as well as sophisticated computer worms like Stuxnet discovered in 2010. With every aspect of daily life now incorporating a computer chip, cyber attacks from often hidden sources can be hard to detect and react to–with blame for these attacks often being impossible to place. This topic will give delegates the opportunity to consider how technology affects their daily lives, how governments take advantage of these vulnerabilities to harm everyday people, and how modern problems can be solved by modern solutions.