ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMISSION FOR ASIA AND THE PACIFIC

 Topic Summary

The South China Sea (SCS) has been a contentious region ever since the beginning of the 20th century. There have been conflicting maritime claims from all countries bordering this sea, especially from China (with its “nine-dash line” that encompasses most of the SCS), Vietnam, and the Philippines which has led to bloodshed in the past. More recently, China has been building up artificial islands in the Paracels and Spratly archipelagos and militarizing them with equipment and infrastructure. This has led to repeated protests by other countries as well as “freedom-of-navigation” operations by Western militaries that seek to challenge China’s claims, which raises the risk of unintended clashes.  Furthermore, interstate disputes have harmed navigation safety and natural resource extraction. There have been many incidents between law enforcement forces and fishing vessels that led to ships sinkings and loss of life. Beyond interstate disputes, there are also other issues plaguing the South China Sea such as environmental concerns or illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing. The ASEAN Regional Forum will thus need to invent solutions to solve these problems, guided by international law such as the UNCLOS. 

Director’s Letter

Dear Delegates,

It is my pleasure to welcome you to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ Regional Forum for the 2024 session of Harvard National Model United Nations! It is a great pleasure for me to serve as your Director and I look forward to productive discussions during our time together at the conference. 

 My name is Nghia L. Nguyen and I’m from Hanoi, Vietnam. I am a rising sophomore living in Lowell House and I am planning to concentrate in Government with a secondary in History. My first Model UN involvement stemmed back from my junior year of high school, where I participated in local conferences held over Zoom during the height of the pandemic. While not exactly the best way to experience MUN, it led me to continue Model UN here at Harvard. I served as the Assistant Director of the European Political and Security Committee at HMUN 2022, and the Assistant Director of the Court of Soleiman the Great, a crisis committee, at HNMUN 2022. I have enjoyed meeting delegates from different backgrounds, all with great personal talents as well as perspectives on the world’s pressing issues. These great experiences have pushed me to become even more deeply involved in MUN by becoming your director for this year’s conference. I hope that I will be able to use my previous experiences with MUN to help deliver a rewarding conference experience. 

Beyond Model UN, I am deeply involved in promoting cultural diversity here at Harvard as a member of different cultural clubs like the Harvard Undergraduate Woodbridge International Society, the Harvard Vietnamese Association and the Harvard French Club. As an avid sports fan, I also write for the Sports section of the Harvard Crimson and commenting live Harvard games on WHRB, Harvard’s student-run radio station. I am also interested in research, working with the Policy Program of the Institute of Politics, the Harvard Undergraduate Foreign Policy Intitative and the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs. This summer, I will be studying at the Harvard Summer School in Paris, which I plan to combine with an European trip. 

The South China Sea has been at the forefront of Asia-Pacific politics due to its crucial importance in trade, geopolitics and natural resources. Beyond the long-standing territorial disputes between the different countries, there are numerous threats to maritime security in South China Sea such as Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated Fishing, illicit maritime drug and human trafficking, piracy and sea robbery and environmental threats. Understanding the causes and evolutions of these threats to Southeast Asian maritime security will be crucial to our discussion in our session, particularly to find solutions to reduce tensions and threat levels in the region. 

I am here to support in every single way possible, from the initial stages of researching and formulating positions to the final remarks in the committee. Please reach out to me for any and all questions, thoughts or concerns, and I look forward to meeting you at the conference! 

Yours sincerely,

Nghia L. Nguyen