United Nations Security Council (UNSC)

The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) holds primary responsibility for maintaining international peace and security and possesses some of the UN system’s most consequential diplomatic and coercive tools. At NAMUN, delegates will confront an increasingly important preventive-security challenge: the spillover of armed-group activity and transnational criminal networks from the Sahel into coastal West African States. Rather than responding to a single established war, the committee asks whether—and how—the Security Council should act before regional instability develops into a broader crisis.

Delegates will examine the growing interaction between armed groups, illicit trafficking networks, fragile border regions, local grievances, and weaknesses in State institutions. Particular attention will be given to strengthening early-warning capabilities and cooperation with UNOWAS, ECOWAS, and other regional actors. The Council must consider how border security, intelligence and information-sharing, and measures against illicit financing can be improved without unnecessarily disrupting legitimate trade, asylum access, cross-border communities, or local livelihoods.

The committee will also debate longer-term preventive measures, including civilian protection, accountable security institutions, justice systems, local governance, and community-based prevention. Delegates will ultimately negotiate a Security Council resolution establishing a credible regional prevention framework, defining assistance priorities, strengthening coordination with regional organizations, and creating mechanisms for monitoring and reporting on emerging threats.