The Georgetown International Relations Association (GIRA), Inc. is excited to announce the newly confirmed executives of the North American Invitational Model United Nations XLVIII.

With hopes to maintain its commitment to transparency, the  GIRA Board of Directors wishes to explain how this process proceeded. Applications were due this past Wednesday 11:59 PM. Upon receiving applications from five candidates combined, the Board extensively interviewed each candidate for their respective positions. Deliberations took place in closed session of the Board of Directors. Prior to entering formal deliberations, the Board discussed expectations about its applicants and critically measured each candidate to these standards. Conflicts of interest were dealt with in a professional manner which maintained the integrity of the selection process.

Although each of the applicants was superbly qualified, after extensive deliberation, the Board of Directors confirmed Jagmeet Singh (SFS ‘12) as Secretary-General of NAIMUN XLVIII and Kelsie Wilhelm (SFS ‘12) as Executive Director of NAIMUN XLVIII! GIRA is fully confident that Jagmeet and Kelsie possess the combined vision and capacity to enact that vision as the Hilton Washington completes its monumental renovations.

On Friday, February 26^th a group of eight IRCers visited the Center for Strategic International Studies (CSIS) headquarters to engage in an informal discussion about a variety of topics, including the workings of a think tank, the competitive and collaborative relationships between different think tanks, and how to obtain an internship. Even on a Friday afternoon, the group brought interest, energy, and a multitude of questions to the conversation.

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On Friday, March 19^th, over 20 eminent policy experts from around Washington DC will join nearly 300 students at the Georgetown Hotel and Conference Center for a keynote and series of panel discussions on a range of important issues in international affairs. The event, titled the Georgetown International Diplomacy and Security Conference, will run from 12:30 PM to 8 PM at night, and include an evening reception for all panelists and guests.

Following the keynote speaker, each hour block will feature two panels running concurrently. Speakers on these panels have vast practical and policy experience in their field, such as Ex-USAID Administrator Prof. Andrew Natsios (Human Dimension in East Africa), Asia-Pacific expert Prof. Robert Sutter (Future of Trade Relations in Asia-Pacific), and Locke Lord Strategies’ Mark Siegel (Islam and the West), who is Pakistan’s chief lobbyist in the United States. The panels, by hour block, are as follows:

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NAIMUN XLVII took place over Valentine’s Day weekend, February 11-14th, 2010. While Snowpacalypse practically incapaciated all activity on the Hilltop, NAIMUN’s brave secretariat forged ahead with their plans to continue with the conference. Even amidst the worst storm DC has seen since the nineteenth century, over two thousand excited delegates, some from as far as China, poured into the Hilltop on Thursday and Friday, determined to compete despite the circumstances. The incredible effort of Secretary General Ena Dekanic and Executive Director Matt Shapiro as well as the rest of the NAIMUN staff certainly paid off—the conference was a resounding success and ran so smoothly that Snowpacalypse was nearly forgotten.

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In the wee hours of Thursday, Jan 28, the IRC’s Conferences Team traveled to Montreal, Canada for the McGill Model United Nations Assembly (McMUN 2010). After a weekend of intense debate (and after losing their voices screaming the Fight Song after watching the Duke game during a lunch break!) the Hoyas emerged victorious yet again, claiming the Best Large Delegation award.

Bearing the blue UN peacekeepers’ helmet as a token of their victory, the team of 45 returned to the Hilltop after an arduous 14-hour busride.

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On Tuesday, January 26, the IRC held the semester’s first General Membership Meeting. In addition to the regular announcements, former US Solicitor General Paul Clement, a Georgetown graduate and former GIRC/GIRA chair/CEO spoke on his experiences in the IRC and the US government.

As the representative of the US federal government before the Supreme Court in the Bush administration, Clement emphasized how he held on to his love for international relations, even as his career path drifted elsewhere. He pointed out that the post-9/11 Supreme Court has had a much greater international focus, a trend that fit his SFS background.

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On Jan 23, about 45 IRC members met in White-Gravenor for AGMUNC II – the second All-Georgetown Model UN training conference. Grant Gibson and alumnus Matt Hipple led a joint crisis between Colombia, Venezuela, and the Organization of American States, in a fast-paced, hectic diplomatic frenzy.

Members of all skill levels, from those who had never participated in MUN before all the way up to senior delegates, had a blast as a minor disagreement on surveillance planes and confusion over a business contract evolved into a South American brawl of epic proportions.

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Here is an open letter from the African Society of Georgetown’s board to all Georgetown clubs, encouraging support in the aftermath of tragic events that took place in Haiti.

Happy New Year and welcome back to campus. This letter is sent out in the worst of times, with the deadly 7.0 magnitude earthquake and its 24 aftershocks that hit near Port-au-Prince on the island of Haiti on Tuesday. Reports coming out of the region have communicated a high sense of urgency and chaos on the island as it is believed that 3 million people have been affected in the city of 4 million and the death toll is somewhere between 45,000 and 50,000 according to the Red Cross. Other reports have the death toll as high as 100,000. Though we reside far away here in DC, with such a high scale of human suffering, we cannot stand idle at this time.

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On Monday, December 14, GIRA Inc. CEO and former IRC Chair Jasdeep Singh had the honor of delivering welcoming remarks and introducing the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to Gaston Hall here at Georgetown University.

Addressed as just “Jas” by Secretary Clinton, Jasdeep’s welcoming remarks focused on the importance of addressing human rights issues faced by the world today, and how his involvement with various clubs on campus such as our own have offered an outlet for such discussions.

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On Monday, December 7, the IRC, alongside Women in Politics, sponsored a panel discussion on the status of women in Africa. The panelists, including Georgetown Law Professor Brian Kritz (SFS ‘94, L ‘97) and two fellows from the Georgetown Law Center’s Leadership and Advocacy for Women in Africa (LAWA) program, discussed the issues of female genital mutilation, rape, and other forms of sexual violence in Cameroon, Kenya, Liberia, and Rwanda. The LAWA fellows, both of whom have worked as human rights professionals in Africa, acknowledged the challenges confronted by women’s rights advocates in Cameroon, Kenya, and Liberia. Professor Kritz, who helped develop Rwanda’s criminal statutes for rape and sexual violence in the aftermath of the genocide, discussed the legal challenges limiting women’s human rights work.

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