Dear Delegates,
It is a pleasure to welcome you to the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine at NCSC 36.
My name is Ryan Kesapyan and I will be serving as Chair. I am a rising senior in the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University majoring in International Politics with a concentration in Foreign Policy and Policy Processes and a certificate in Eurasian, Russian and East European Studies. I spent Fall 2007 abroad in Russia, where I studied Russian as a Foreign Language and Area Studies at Moscow International University. Your Director, Monica Wojcik, hails from Chicago and is a Junior in the School of Foreign Service. She is majoring in International Political Economy and is especially interested in Polish-Ukrainian-Russian relations.
Model UN has been a passion of mine since high school. I benefit from having the unique perspective as a seasoned delegate and former conference executive. I served as the Director-General of NAIMUN XLIV (our high school conference) and as an Under Secretary-General for NAIMUN XLIII. I previously staffed this conference as a USG for Cabinets and Crises and as a Crisis Analyst. I also had the distinct honor to twice serve as a Committee Assistant for GQMUNC, an annual MUN held by the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service located in Doha, Qatar for students from all over the Middle East. Lastly, I served as the Head Delegate and Conferences Coordinator of Georgetown’s competitive MUN team during 2006-2007.
The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine will take place in the present day. Its structure will mirror that of the actual Cabinet, although some positions have been eliminated due to space constraints. The mandate of this committee is to work to resolve high level issues and plan strategic policy. Our first topic will be Gas Relations with the Russian Federation. Price hikes, freezes on gas sales, and the influence of shady intermediaries dominate Russo-Ukrainian relations. Our second topic, Ukraine-NATO Relations, concerns possible membership in this strategic alliance and the domestic discord over joining. Needless to say, many issues will factor into our debate and discussion over the weekend, including politicking between Cabinet members, the push-pull forces of nationalists versus pro-Russian sympathizers, and Ukraine’s strategic location and ownership of pipelines that transit Russian gas to European markets.
I am very excited to be chairing the Ukrainian Cabinet as Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko. Please read the background guide and cabinet member biographies to gain a true grasp of the issues shaping present day Ukraine. Updates to this background guide may be published based on the changing situation and any new agreements concerning our topics. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to email me.
Welcome to Washington, D.C. and HOYA SAXA!
Ryan A. Kesapyan
Rak42(at)georgetown.edu
