Winston Chiu is a freshman at Taipei American School (TAS), and the crisis director of UN4MUN/Crisis: North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). He started TASMUN in seventh grade. This year, he looks forward to “experiencing a very engaging debate” because the procedures for UN4MUN/Crisis: NATO are “more fast-paced than normal Model United Nations (MUN).” In Crisis committees, delegates must agree on how to “solve all the issues all the while trying to advance their agenda.”

 

The topic for UN4MUN/Crisis: NATO is the question of the situation in Ukraine. Winston believes the conflict between Russia and Ukraine is causing “the world's power blocks [to be] both obvious and blurry in such a conflict with hesitant actions and ineffective institutions, damaging the public trust in governments and the UN.” In Winston’s perspective, the war in Ukraine “definitely changed the political atmosphere a lot. The public lost a lot of trust in the United Nations (UN), NATO, and world leaders because of their relative idleness.” The war in Ukraine will not be taken lightly by the delegates. Winston warns us to “be ready for leaked information, cyberterrorism, and nuclear threats.”

 

While this is Winston’s first time being involved in UN4MUN/Crisis, he has attended multiple conferences. From his experience, Winston feels that “on the surface [NATO] seems like a group of very unified nations, but deep down, they have their agendas.” As a crisis director, he “has a lot of control over how the crisis progresses.” However, Winston’s role also brings responsibilities. Both crisis directors must “develop creative responses to delegate solutions” as they are more active in the debate than usual. 

 

All delegates taking part in TASMUN are expected to take the situation in Ukraine seriously. The goal is for everyone to strive to improve their understanding of crises around the world. Ultimately, Winston hopes all delegates will participate in the debate and improve their speaking and debating skills.