United Nations Security Council

Topic 1: The escalating situation in Crimea

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Topic 2: Limiting the impact of technological and cyber-warfare military applications on international peace and security

Topic 1: The escalating situation in Crimea is a long-standing territorial dispute in Eastern Europe between Ukraine and Russia over the Crimean Peninsula. It is located in a geographically strategic position in the Northern Black Sea existing between Russia and Ukraine. When Ukraine became an independent country with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Crimean Peninsula remained within their borders —but with its beneficial location at the Black Sea, this important region's sovereign status was convoluted. Russia has interfered in the region in ways such as the 1997 Russian-Ukrainian Partition Treaty that set out conditions for the Russian Black Sea Fleet to respect the sovereignty of Ukraine while granting Russian access to the Port of Sevastopol for 20 years, initially ending in 2017. In 2010, the Kharkiv Pact was later signed between Russia and Ukraine to extend this treaty for Russia to remain in Crimea until 2042, in exchange for discounted Russian natural gas for Ukraine. By 2014, the situation took a monumental turn as Russian forces seized Crimea and conducted the controversial Crimean Status referendum that deducted that Crimean citizens voted to join Russia as a federal subject. After this deduction, Russia and its forces annexed Crimea and has since administered it as two of its 85 federal subjects, fully integrating it in July of 2015. This referendum and consequent annexation was deemed invalid  and condemned as illegal by major international powers including the European Union and USA along with the United Nations, resulting in Ukraine and most international governments continuing to regard Crimea as occupied Ukrainian territory, meanwhile others still side with Russia. Recently, tensions have been rising with buildup of troops and anticipation of border conflicts as both sides seem to be leaning towards the use of force, while others are calling for reconciliation.

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Topic 2: Cyber warfare in the twenty-first-century is a cardinal threat to our society’s aim of having a peaceful and democratic world. Technology has benefited us in almost every way possible. It has the ability to connect but at the same time separate and destroy nations and institutions. Cyber warfare is only an example of the broad spectrum of harmful technologies. There is a significant debate regarding the definition of cyber warfare. There is a common consensus that, "Cyberwarfare is the use of technology to attack a nation, causing comparable harm to actual warfare and/or disrupting vital computers". In recent years, nations have been focusing on cyber operations, and significant capital has been invested in that scope. The predominant reason that nations undertake cyber operations is because they are cheap and a risk-free way to weaken other countries and strengthen their own. There are many examples of states monitoring others, stealing data, blocking their systems, and interfering in domestic issues, which leads to political conspiracies. For example, the anti-government campaigns in the US elections and theories that Russia interfered in the US elections. The reality is that because the digital world is 'the invisible enemy,' it is nearly impossible to control it, making it extremely difficult to establish a framework and rules for what is acceptable and what is not. Numerous attempts have been made to establish a legal framework, but none have been successful. There have been many discussions to determine how new intelligence can be used in cyber space to foster peace. We have a long way to go in order to secure the world and people from cyber-attacks.