National Model United Nations 2025 Washington - (NMUN-DC)

Join hundreds of college and university students from around the world as we meet in the U.S. capital and participate in discussions on issues at the forefront of international relations. At NMUN•DC 2025 we we will offer eight simulated UN committees utilizing procedural rules developed with UNITAR. The conference features smaller committee sizes than our New York conference, a crisis simulation in the Security Council, and distinguished keynote speakers. Delegations may also arrange briefings at nearby embassies or extend their stay to visit U.S. national museums and monuments.

NMUN programs require college and university students to apply their academic knowledge actively while simulating the work of diplomats in experiential learning programs that demand their collaboration with their peers from various nations to craft negotiated solutions to current global problems. Students must research, craft, and then advocate positions with which they may or may not agree. Participants strengthen through practice the skills of listening, persuasion, and negotiating, while developing a deeper capacity for empathy and creative problem solving.

Our Mission

National Model United Nations (NMUN) is a U.S. 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that advances understanding of the United Nations and contemporary international issues. We positively affect the lives of participants and prepare them to be better global citizens through quality educational experiences that emphasize collaboration and cooperative resolution of conflict. We envision a world comprised of civically engaged people who strive for peaceful, multilateral conflict resolution and equitable, sustainable human development.

Guiding Principle

Cooperative, hands-on, experiential learning allows students to confront a range of topics with the perspective of their assigned country or organization. Through these experiences - during preparation in committee sessions and hallway caucuses - students develop an appreciation of differing viewpoints, experience the challenges of negotiation, see the rewards of cooperation, broaden their world view, and discover the human side of international relations and diplomacy.

UN Involvement

NMUN has been a recognized Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) formally associated with the United Nations Department of Global Communications since 1982 and a UN Academic Impact member since 2013.

Numerous NMUN conference speakers work for the UN. It has been our privilege to have UN Secretaries-General Ban Ki-moon, Kofi Annan, and Boutros Boutros-Ghali; and Deputy Secretaries-General Amina J. Mohammed and Jan Eliasson serve as keynote speakers. UN officials have also served as advisory group members, and many student delegations meet with their official national delegations during the conference.

UN facilities, including the General Assembly Hall, are generally used on the last day of our New York conferences. When UN space is unavailable for the Closing Ceremony we attempt to hold the Opening Ceremony at the UN. In 1952 we were the first Model UN conference to use the UN headquarters in New York City for our final session.

We were pioneers in using rules more aligned with those used by the UN. The rules of procedure used at NMUN programs were adapted by us from actual UN rules. The UN Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) reviewed and approved them in the 1990s.

Experiential Learning Programs

Our programs provide a diverse group of informed students and their faculty advisors a forum for addressing global concerns in a real world context. Conferences address important issues including regional conflicts, women and children, peacekeeping, human rights, economic and social development, and the environment. Our goal is to provide a better understanding of the inner workings of the UN as students build skills in diplomacy and compromise.