JCC: US Cabinet
Joint Cabinet Crisis: Border Tensions
The US Cabinet
Please note: this is a special application committee. Applications will be due September 24.
Chris Lehman, Director
Class Year: 2013
Concentration: Government
Hometown: Lexington, MA
Favorite Country or Place: Roatán, Honduras
Favorite Food: Oatmeal
Favorite MUN Moment: Being a mole in the Franco-Prussian JCC at HMUN 2010
Why I selected this committee: This simulation has the potential to be much less straightforward than the average JCC since it combines the domestic and foreign policy of two countries that, while close allies, have many important differences that will hopefully lead to a high level of discussion within each cabinet and a similarly high degree of interaction between the two cabinets. Furthermore, US-Mexico relations and the issues associated with them receive far less attention in current American political discourse than they deserve, and I hope that this committee will lead the delegates to continue to think about the challenges facing both countries in these areas.
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Karti Mital, Crisis Director
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Committee Background
Today the United States faces a formidable array of daunting challenges, both at home and abroad. However, this special- ized, joint-cabinet crisis committee will evaluate the increasingly complex relationship between the United States and Mexico. In no other areas are the domestic and foreign spheres of US policy so interconnected and so heavily debated. From an American perspective, by far the most media-dominated area of the relationship between the two countries is immigration. Immigration, however, is only the beginning. Delegates in this committee will also explore international trade between the US and the rest of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Finally, this committee will explore the darker side of globalization: the trade of illegal narcotics and firearms, and other items that has contributed to the destabilization of politics and daily life in Mexico over the last half century.
Delegates will be expected not only to work amongst themselves to devise innovative solutions for existing issues, but also to cooperate with their Mexican counterparts across the border and to respond quickly to new developments at home, across the border, and in the larger international scene. How does the United States wish to conduct its affairs with its neighbor across the border? How effective is NAFTA? What can be done to prevent the smuggling of illegal items and persons across a increasingly securitized border?
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For More Information on the United States’ Relations With Mexico visit:
Mexico-US Relations: Issues for Congress (PDF)
State Department Background Notes
