Professor Joyce Mushaben led a group of UMSL students from her European Union Politics class to Bloomington, Indiana, to take part in the Midwest Model EU simulation. The UMSL delegation included (from left) Mushaben, Justin Kimenyerwa, Fiqow Wehliye, Professor Bettina Casad, Scott O'Brien, Kyle Perkins, Mary Painter, Armin Cejvanovic, Chadwick Eaton, Steven Young, Colin Kinkade and Savannah Price.
For Chadwick Eaton, a weekend trip to Bloomington, Indianait might have been the next best thing to go Brussels to glean a better understanding of its dynamics European Union.
Eaton, Jr political science master, was part of a team of 12 students and faculty members representing the University of Missouri-St. Louis last month on the 25th Midwest Model EU on his campus Indiana University.
The experience left an impression.
“It was very different from anything else I've ever done,” Eaton said. “Obviously, people had to act like it's a country that represents certain values and issues and it's not themselves.”
He admitted that he had limited knowledge of the supranational body when he enrolled in the Politics of the European Union course that served as his starting point for the three day event held April 20-22 at IU's Memorial Union.
This is typical for many of the students Joyce Mushaben, o Adjunct Professor of Political Sciencehas led UMSL delegations for more than 20 years, including 2013 when UMSL hosted the simulation.
Eaton was one of the UMSL students represented Luxembourg this year with the others assigned to her delegation United Kingdom. Try to guess his views and personality Jean Asselbornlong-serving Minister for Foreign and European Affairs of Luxembourg, holding the post since 2004;
He learned about the man through weeks of research and watching a documentary titled “of Foreign Affairs.” The 2016 film showcases Asselborn's work in making the voice of his small country of around 560,000 citizens heard on a continental and global stage.
Eaton did his best to echo the same voice among the other ministers in the Council of Foreign Affairs. That meant taking a stand against a proposal that aimed to create an office-to-everyone program 28 Member States to combat Russian propaganda.
He argued that Luxembourg is considered one of the most powerful countries in the world protection of freedom of speech and freedom of expression, would oppose, in principle, a measure that could be interpreted as censorship. He noted that expression and assembly are also among the freedoms declared in EU Charter of Fundamental Rights.
“That's not what they do,” Eaton said.
Mushaben said that as the issues are discussed in the simulation, it is very common to see students abandoning the interests of their adopted country.
“They feel like they have to pass for things,” Mushaben said. “That's a very American thing.”
A lesson from the Midwest Model EU should be how complicated this can be in a body with 28 national interests. Successful qualified majority Support – the chamber's standard voting method which requires 55% of member states representing at least 65% of the EU's population – is challenging. There are even some EU measures – including those affecting the common foreign and security policy – that require it unanimous consent to be enacted.
In the weeks leading up to the three-day event, students from participating universities must draft and submit proposals that can ultimately be submitted for discussion by one of the four councils – Foreign Affairs, Economic and Fiscal Affairs, Justice and Home Affairs and Environment.
They can come from almost any topic.
Mushaben pointed out last year when UMSL was charged to represent Romania. One of her students learned about the declining black bear population in this country, a problem widely believed to be a result of climate change. He brought a proposal aimed at saving the black bear population to be discussed by the environmental council.
This year's UMSL delegation was quick to submit their proposals and study the people who would represent their members in the simulation. And that's because the Politics of the European Union course was offered in a condensed eight-week format.
It created a lot of work in a short period of time for students – mostly juniors and seniors majoring in political science, but also Bettina Casadhis assistant professor psychological sciences who wanted to know more about the European Union before doing research Euroscepticism in the UK this summer.
The students' research gave them great insight into the wide range of views that exist between different governments in the European Union, as well as the breadth and scope of rules and regulations overseen by the peacekeeping body.
The ongoing refugee crisis Unsurprisingly, he was frequently featured in proposals presented over the weekend in Indiana.
One issue that played out less than Musaben expected was Brexit, the United Kingdom's vote last year to leave the European Union. He wondered if this was due to the Prime Minister Theresa May he only took the important step towards departure by signing documents activation of Article 50 from Treaty of Lisbon on March.
“Nobody really knows how it's going to go yet,” he said.
The process of considering the proposals brought its own lessons, even if the students sometimes struggled to understand the full picture of a given issue.
“We're students, so we don't necessarily know everything about the ins and outs or even the social protocol and cultural protocol behind it,” said the teaching assistant and PhD student Mary Painterwho served as Amber Rudd, the Secretary of State for the Home Office in the United Kingdom. “But you really get a sense of how hard it is to get consensus.
“When you learn about where different countries stand on different issues, you learn to approach problems in a comparative way and you also learn negotiation skills.”
There's also quite a bit of fun along the way, especially when it comes to assuming different characters.
Economics junior Armin Cejvanovic played the role of the President of the European Union Jean-Claude Juncker. Junior psychology major Savannah Price served as May. Another classmate of theirs was the Prime Minister of Luxembourg Xavier Bettela man so famous for the scarves he wears that they have their own Twitter account.
“You don't often get to play pretend,” Painter told the students before they set off on the trip. “I think I said, 'When was the last time you pretended to be someone else?' We had a student who had to pretend to be Boris Johnson So, “Go ahead and have fun with it.”
They also had fun interacting with the students from other universities, both during the formal proceedings and in the evenings after the work was done.
This year's Midwest Model EU drew students from 17 schools, including Ball State, Iowa State and Illinois and as far away as Florida Atlantic, Stephen F. Austin and the United States Air Force Academy.
This opportunity to meet and engage with other students is another reason Mushaben believes so much in the experience.
“It's such a learning device,” said the professor. “I used to joke that they only learn half as much as we would like, but they learn twice as much as they expect.”
