ODU Model United Nations Conference (ODUMUNC)

Committees

Ending the Great War (WWI): Central vs. Entente Powers - Joint Crisis Committee

Crisis Director: TBA

Background

Issue brief - WWI - Cental Powers

Issue brief - WWI - Triple Entente Powers

It was called The Great War because no one thought there could ever be something worse. And it was the worst catastrophe for Western Civilization since the plague of 1348. That it went on for over four years is seen as one of the colossal failures of diplomacy, military strategy and human imagination. The peace process that followed was an equally serious failure, a fact proven beyond doubt twenty-one years later when the war resumed, with the same countries fighting in the same place for many of the state stakes. If ever there were events humanity could have done better, The Great War of 1914-1918 and the 1919 Paris Peace Conference were it.

This simulation will enable participants to reimagine the diplomacy and strategy of the war and the subsequent peace conference. Could the Central Powers have achieved a better outcome, an end that did not result in the destruction of the Austrian and Ottoman Empires and the occupation and disassembly of Germany? Could the Entente Powers have fought in a way that brought the fighting to a rapid and overwhelming victory, instead of a victory eked out yard-by-yard, and left German forces intact? Could both sides have achieved a stable and durable peace, a peace that saved the rest of the Twentieth Century?

Meeting initially in a war-time atmosphere, as two separate alliances, role-players first must confront the pain, horror and frustration of unrelenting warfare, and guide their way to a better outcome.