Northwestern President Emeritus Henry Bienen spoke to a Louis Room packed with high school students about foreign affairs Thursday evening, kicking off the 10th annual Northwestern University Model United Nations.
Bienen, who preceded Morton Schapiro as Northwestern president, began his speech by talking about the benefits of a "mixed career" such as his when working with foreign policy. Other than his term as president, Bienen has worked at Princeton and served as a consultant to the National Security Council, the U.S. Department of State, the World Bank and the CIA. According to him, this kind of diverse background is helpful when dealing with such a multifaceted discipline as foreign policy.
Bienen continued by emphasizing the importance of considering past international issues when making current foreign policy decisions. He cited the sanctions placed on Libya last year that mirrored similar sanctions that failed against Cuba decades earlier. He also brought up comparisons between the Vietnam War and the recent war in Iraq.
"I was shocked how big foreign policy bureaucracies have such short memories," Bienen said.
Bienen's speech was part of the opening ceremonies for NUMUN X, the 10th iteration of the model U.N. event Northwestern hosts each year. The participants in this year's event include about 600 high school students from across the nation as well as 75 Northwestern students on staff, according to Weinberg senior Jaya Sah, Secretary-General for NUMUN X. Throughout the weekend-long event, high schoolers will take on the persona of international representatives and debate important worldwide issues.
"It's always impressive how much the high school students prepare for it," Sah said, "especially with these issues that high school students don't normally know or care about."
Over the long weekend, students will meet in several different committee sessions to debate solutions to international issues. The catch is that the students have to argue the position of whomever they are representing.
"Sometimes their arguments will be wildly out of touch with what they believe in," Sah said, bringing up the example of arguing about nuclear policies as an Iranian delegate.
It's fairly common for colleges to host this kind of model U.N. event, Sah said. What sets Northwestern's event apart is its commitment to giving these high school students a comprehensive Northwestern experience while they're here. Whereas other colleges' events might take place in a hotel, NUMUN makes sure participants stay on campus, she said.
To this end, the opening ceremony was introduced with several members of the Northwestern University Marching Band performing the fight song down the aisle of the Louis Room.
"For a lot of high schoolers it's their first taste of Northwestern," Sah said. "We really try to make this a Northwestern-centric experience."
Editor's note, Sat. April 13 at 3:06 a.m.: This article originally understated the number of Northwestern students on staff at NUMUN X.