Cluster G: Historical

Strategic competition has recurred across historical periods in various configurations, and diplomatic history offers considerable material on how this competition has been either contained or allowed to escalate. Committees in this cluster will revisit specific historical scenarios in which strategic competition has shaped diplomatic outcomes, examining both the decisions that succeeded in managing rivalry and those that failed to prevent its escalation into direct conflict, leaving consequences that shaped the international system for decades afterwards. Delegates should draw on the historical record as a body of comparative evidence, examining what conditions allowed competing interests to be balanced, and what conditions permitted that balance to break down.