The Art of Compromise

An Interesting Article on the topic'' :

In Model UN, compromise is a skill that every best delegate needs to be well-versed in, as it is often vital in passing a resolution. Moreover, passing a resolution is obviously the primary purpose of most committees and a huge reflection of the work you have put in at a conference. Your receiving of an award is usually not decided based on whether or not your resolution passed, but using tact and diplomacy to pass you resolution positively reflects on you from the perspective of your dais. Therefore, compromise is crucial to performing outstandingly. It will be better for you to learn that now then in committee.

For instance, at a high school conference, we were discussing a territorial dispute in the International Court of Justice committee. There were 13 delegates present, and my bloc contained 7, while the opposing bloc had 6. A powerful member of the opposing bloc offered to support my bloc if I slightly adjusted the resolution in a fairly insignificant manner. Unfortunately, I was under the impression that I was already leading the majority, so any concession, however small, was unnecessary. Thus, I declined his offer. Ironically, at the last minute, in the middle of voting procedure, a member of my block jumped ship, leaving my bloc with 6 votes and the opposing one with 7. My resolution failed and the opposing one passed. I did still win Best Delegate in this committee, but I failed to push through my resolution because of my overconfidence in my majority and my stubborn refusal to compromise. Had I compromised, even a member of my bloc switching sides at the last minute wouldn’t have impeded the passing of my resolution. Nonetheless, I nominated the delegate who jumped ship as the most likely delegate to stab you in the back.

The story substantiates the necessity of compromise to pass a resolution. The art of compromise however is a dangerous one. In a compromise, you have to make concessions from your own position in exchange for someone else making concessions on their position, allowing you both to reach the stances similar enough to support one resolution. If you do this, you will have a powerful tool in garnering support. However, when compromising, you have to be careful not to concede on any of the key positions of the country you are representing. The delegate that you are compromising with will ask you to remove things from the resolution that directly conflict with things in his nation’s core stance. You should make these concessions if and only if they are not a core portion of your country’s stance. For example, if the topic at hand is the Korean Dispute, and you are representing South Korea, you cannot remove the portion that recognizes your national sovereignty. However, you can remove the portion that condemns a specific insignificant action of North Korea. When making these delicate compromises, it helps to create a list. The list will contain two sections: needs and wants. The needs section will include things that your country demands be included in a resolution. In the example above, it would include things such as: recognizes South Korea’s national sovereignty. The wants section will include things that your country would like to see in a resolution, but does not necessarily have to see. In the example above, it will include things such as: condemns North Korea for the November attack on South Korean territory.

Additionally, when making the trade-off of concessions, you can take a flexible or a hard-line stance. The benefit of a hard-line stance is that you may be able to negotiate your wants onto a resolution if you act unyielding and refuse to budge. The downside is that the person whom you are negotiating with may just decide not to work with you. The benefit of a flexible position is that it will be easy to accumulate support. The downside is that you will most likely not be able to get your wants onto the resolution. It makes sense to take the hard-line position if you are already in a strong majority, because losing possible additional support will not have great consequence. Conversely, it makes sense to take a flexible approach when you are in the minority, as you desperately need to expand your base. Furthermore, do not make a compromise if it would require you to remove a need of your country’s stance. Compromise is not necessary in every single situation, and it is better to see your resolution fail then to seriously undermine your country’s stance on an issue. If you do manage to pass a resolution because of your ability to compromise, then you have successfully expanded your useful skill-set.