• The issue of the federalization of fragile states 

• The issue of sanctions and their impacts on global security and stability

As the HSMUN Chair for the Reform Security Council, I was selected for the wonderful opportunity of getting to talk and work with Mr.Yang, the Middle School Individuals and Societies teacher. Mr.Yang and I met during break on September 23rd, and I asked him about some questions regarding who he is and his input on the conference topic for this year. 

The first question I asked him was why he became a teacher. Mr.Yang talked about how he loves the idea of community. He mentioned that he had a great time as a student in secondary school, and wanted to be a teacher because “being a teacher means you’re able to contribute to creating this community.” This is Mr.Yang’s 10th year being a teacher. He believes that teachers have a very important role in guiding a students and their beliefs about the world and their role in it, as well as how they can contribute to society, which is essential for a students growth. 

The second question I asked Mr.Yang is if he’s had any experience related to MUN before. Mr.Yang has had experience working with an UN Association, but has never directly been involved in Model UN. He understands the “bigger ideas” related to MUN, but not our day-to-day procedures. Mr.Yang will be working alongside Mr.T to coordinate the Middle School MUN Conference, and will be coming to the HSMUN Conference as well. 

The final question I asked Mr.Yang is his take on the theme of our conference this year: “The role of sovereignty in diplomacy towards international responsibility.” Mr.Yang said “I do think sovereignty is often used as a reason that countries shouldn’t be involved in other countries affairs, but I think because of how connected we all are, everybody has accountability. Everyone is accountable, even if you’re sovereign to your people.” Mr.Yang expressed that countries can be sovereign but should still be held accountable for helping each other “in terms of providing development and respecting human rights even if you’re sovereign." He also mentioned that these could all be discussed through “diplomacy and continuous collaboration”, connecting all aspects of our theme together. 

To conclude, Mr.Yang has provided insights about himself, his ideas and opinions towards MUN. As a chair, it will be a great opportunity to work alongside Mr.Yang during the conferences, not only further nurturing our relationship as chair and mentor, but also growing the MUN community. Mr.Yang will be present in the HSMUN Conference and will be spectating. Thank you Mr.Yang! 

As a HSMUN Chair for the November 2025 conference, I was provided with an exceptional opportunity to collaborate with Ms.Megan Brazil. Ms Megan Brazil, the elementary school principal, gratefully accepted to meet with me on September 16. Before the meeting started, Ms.Brazil mentioned that she had no knowledge about MUN, which guided which questions I asked her. During our meeting, I asked her some questions ranging from her motivation for being a teacher, to her family values and how they impacted her. 

The first question I asked her was what got her interested in teaching. Ms.Brazil responded saying that initially she wanted to be a psychologist. She was interested in psychology and teaching, and ended up becoming a teacher, then eventually becoming the ES Principle. She enjoyed working with children, and wanted very much to help children, leading her to choosing this inspiring career path. 

The second question I asked was what she cared about. For Ms.Brazil, she said she cared mainly about equality. Specifically, she cares about quality education and gender equality. Ms.Brazil has taken action to ensure equality, something she deeply cares about, can be seen in the UNIS community. She has written policies for inclusion, and have tried to give more women opportunities in leadership.

The final question I asked was if the she would discuss these global issues at home. Ms.Brazil’s responded to this by depicting what a dinner at her house would be if they were to discuss a global issue at home. At home, when talking about these issues, they would be discussed. Ms.Brazil mentioned that they would consider the issues effect on them, and explain how their family values gave them a stance on this issue. She has 2 daughters, one of which graduated in 2023, and another in Grade 10. 

To conclude, both Ms.Megan has shared valuable and interesting information about herself, allowing us as chairs to better understand their thoughts and nurture our relationships with her.  Ms.Megan has offered to teach a masterclass on leadership, benefiting all of the chairs here at UNISMUN and our leadership team. Thank you Ms.Brazil! 

Greetings distinguished delegates and esteemed guests,

My name is Juhwan Lee, a junior from St.Paul American School Hanoi (SPASH). This marks my 11th conference overall, and my 4th conference serving as a chair, and it is a pleasure to be serving as your head chair of the Reform Security Council in the upcoming 2025 November UNIS Conference.

The theme that penetrates all committees for this conference is “The role of sovereignty in diplomacy towards international responsibility”. Though seemingly concise and simple, the nuance that lies behind this theme must be properly considered. What constitutes “sovereignty” has been a topic of debate, for such concepts are frequently used to justify domestic abuse of human rights, and to repel international intervention. What delegates will be ruminating as the conference progresses will be determining to what extent should the international community intervene with country-specific issues, without transgressing the sovereignty of each individual nation.

The Reform Security Council (RSC) is a modified version of the Security Council, that aims to secure international peace and stability, where the power dynamics focused on the P5 nations (Russia, China, The United States, France, and the United Kingdom) is renewed to reflect a more globalized community. Therefore, the core difference between SC and RSC is that RSC adds 4 more countries from the P5 nations that could cast their influence during veto procedures: Brazil, Germany, Japan, and India, giving RSC a unique structure of having 9 permanent members and 6 non-permanent members. However, delegates should be aware that only the original P5 nations are allowed to submit a veto, and the other 4 members are only permitted to cast a vote regarding the submitted veto.

The first topic that we will be debating on is the issue of federalization in fragile states. Fragile states refer to states in which the government is failing, or in other words, unable to perform its core functions including economic inequality, lack of legitimacy, and weak authority. Current politics point out that the vast majority of states that are struggling with this issue are experiencing a certain kind of division, caused by ethnic differences or the activity of militias, which go back hundreds of years in time. Therefore, it is most likely that the division will be fixed, instead of rectified, making centralized governments  a rather unviable solution. Instead, what has come up as an alternative is federal governments that place regional bodies of governments under a centralized government. However, delegates should further consider the drawbacks of this method, and how it could be adequately addressed in their debates. The second topic of this council is the issue of sanctions and their impacts on global security and stability. As many are aware, the international community has seen countless precedents of the use of sanctions in mitigating conflict, which is also evident in the ongoing Russian and Ukrainian War. Still, even as those sanctions limit countries’ abilities to pursue international threats, there is a possibility for a backfire, as shown in the drastic increase of oil price as Russia’s export of oil was denied. Imposing sanctions, therefore, is also a double edged sword: it may secure global peace if used properly, but still may disrupt it if used inappropriately, a critical aspect of sanctions that must be addressed during debate. Both of these topics are significant in our conference and hold a lot of meaning globally, because these are issues that put the international community’s ability to truly cooperate to the test.

With this said, I look forward to seeing some fruitful discussions in our council. Thank you so much for your participation and see you in November!

Best regards,

Juhwan Lee

Welcome distinguished delegates, fellow honorable chairs and our most respected guests, 

My name is Ashley Lim. I am a 9th grade or freshman student here at UNIS Hanoi, and I am honored to be your chair at this years November conference. This is my third conference at UNIS Hanoi, and my second conference being a chair. Again, I am very honored to be your chair, and excited for the fruitful debates to come!

UNISMUN conferences generally have topics and themes that are related to each other. For this year's November conference, our main theme will be “The role of sovereignty in diplomacy towards international responsibility”. The meaning behind this theme, when simplified, is the relationships between state sovereignty and how they are able to communicate about international issues through diplomacy while still respecting each states independence. Although I don’t have a direct personal connection with this topic, but I am interested because there are other questions that are related/fall under this question, and many different aspects to consider, and so this mind-twisting theme is able to create many answers and lead to a very intriguing and fruitful debate.  

The Reform Security Council, or RSC, is part of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) and is considered more as an ongoing debate, where the topic is how to improve the UNSC, essentially reforming it, into a council that is fair, representative, inclusive, and transparent in todays society. As of July 2025, the main issues the RSC have been discussing include Africa pushing for 2 permanent seats on the UNSC, the question of VETO Power and it’s members, the question of expanding the P5 nations to P9, the question of adding more seats to for under represented nations, and the UNSC’s operations and work methods. 

That being said, the RSC’s topics this year are 1) The issue of federalization of fragile states, and 2) The issue of sanctions and their impacts on global security and stability. The first topic is significant because it affects global peace, as allowing fragile states to be federalized may result in different consequences depending on each states status/stability, thus, it is a globally significant topic, and affects themselves as a state as well. This is a topic that is significant to me because personally my country has heavily benefited from federalization, and I would like to see other states, their opinions and reasons behind their stances. The second topic is also significant because it affects global security and stability. Sanctions are beneficial for many reasons, but can also cause tension and conflicts. Though this topic is not directly related to me, this topic is very intriguing for me and I am glad to have been selected to chair for it. 

I hope that all of the delegates reading this profile right now are excited and prepared to have a wonderful conference. A word of advice for the delegates who are in the RSC committee, is to always keep an eye on the bigger picture. The goal of the RSC is to improve the UNSC, which will be important to keep in mind during the conference. 

Again, I am so honored to be your chair this conference. 

Sincerely,

Ashley Lim 

Greetings honorable chairs, distinguished delegates and most esteemed guests,

My name is Alison Choi and I am a freshman at UNIS Hanoi. This is my 7th UNISMUN Conference, marking 2nd as a Chair. I am more than honored to be serving as a Procedural Chair for the Reform Security Council for this upcoming N2025 conference.

The theme of this year’s November 2025 conference is “the role of sovereignty in diplomacy towards international responsibility”.  The meaning behind this theme talks about how the highest power of a state can enforce laws to have peaceful negotiation and communication between certain states and nations to prevent big conflicts such as wars, and resolve disputes. This topic is very important especially in 2025 since there are lots of ongoing wars and violence between nations, with small peaceful communication. I believe that having a MUN conference regarding this topic is important because it helps us know which countries have the power to apply laws in order to stop wars and look at different nation’s perspectives about sovereignty and international peace, security and responsibility.

Moving on, the committee I’ll be chairing for, which is the Reform Security Council (RSC for short), is a very crucial committee that plays an important role for this topic and conference. The main concept of RSC and its procedures are very similar to the Security Council, so it includes the P5 nation’s having the right to hold VETO powers. RSC is a part of the United Nations Security Council (also known as UNSC for short), and the councils in the UNSC mainly focus on maintaining international peace and security, which is mainly what the N2025 conference is about. 

That being said, the two topics for RSC this conference are 1) the issue of the federalization of fragile states and 2) the issue of sanctions and their impacts on global security and stability. The first topic means bringing something to the federal system, which is a form of government where the main power is divided into central national government and smaller regional government, and how that can impact fragile states, which are nations where the government failed to fully meet key needs for their citizens. It is an important topic to RSC for this conference because changes to the federal system are related to sovereignty and can damage international security. The second topic talks about how an official approval can impact global peace and security and how stable it is, without violence and conflict. It’s important because it shows how the sovereignty (power) to govern the state can impact international peace and security. 

The two topics may seem difficult, but I assure you it will be a fun conference where all delegates will have fun. One tip to keep in mind is that you will understand the topic eventually when you listen to other delegate’s speeches and POI’s. As someone who has been a delegate for five conferences, I understand the struggles of not wanting to speak first and being nervous, but the main goal of MUN is to have fun and learn something new. As my responsibility as a Chair, I hope that all delegates in my committee had a wonderful experience and sees MUN as an open opportunity to grow, think critically and collaborate with everyone.

See you in the November conference!

Best regards,

Alison Choi