Struggling with your MUN position paper format example? This guide breaks down the structure and provides actionable tips to write a paper that wins awards.

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When it comes to crafting a winning MUN position paper format example, you need to think like a diplomat. The best papers follow a time-tested, three-part structure: Topic Background, Country Policy, and Proposed Solutions. This isn't just a random template; it's a logical flow that chairs and fellow delegates know and respect. It’s your ticket to building a persuasive argument, moving seamlessly from context to action.

Getting this structure right is your first real test as a delegate.

Mastering the MUN Position Paper Format

Before you even think about writing, internalize the blueprint of a great position paper. It's not an academic essay—it’s a strategic brief for your chair and a personal roadmap for you during the conference. The structure is designed to guide everyone through your argument, making your points clear, logical, and impactful.

You're essentially telling a story. First, you establish a shared understanding of the problem. Then, you zoom in on your country's specific stake in the issue. Finally, you propose the way forward. This methodical approach is what makes your arguments feel grounded and, most importantly, persuasive.

The Three Pillars of Your Paper

Every solid position paper rests on three core pillars. While you might adjust the length of each one, their fundamental purpose never changes.

Topic Background: This is where you set the stage. You need to concisely lay out the history of the issue, referencing key UN actions, major international treaties, and any relevant past resolutions. The goal here isn't to write a history book—it's to show the chair you've done your homework and understand the context of the debate.

Country Policy: Now it's time to pivot from the general to the specific. This section is all about your assigned country's official stance. What's their history with the topic? What domestic policies do they have? What international agreements have they championed? This is where you prove you understand your nation's unique interests and foreign policy priorities.

Proposed Solutions: This is the heart of your paper and should absolutely be the longest section. You've identified the problem; now what are you going to do about it? Propose clear, actionable, and innovative solutions that genuinely align with your country's policy. This is your moment to demonstrate leadership and creativity.

The infographic below gives you a great visual breakdown of how your focus should be split across these three key areas.

To make this even clearer, let's break down the role of each section in a simple table.

Anatomy of an Award-Worthy Position Paper

This table offers a quick-glance summary of what each part of your paper needs to accomplish.

Section	Objective	Key Content Focus
Topic Background	To establish common ground and demonstrate foundational knowledge.	Key historical events, past UN resolutions, relevant treaties, and statistics.
Country Policy	To define your nation's unique perspective and national interests.	Official government statements, voting records, domestic laws, and alliances.
Proposed Solutions	To drive the debate forward and showcase leadership.	Specific, actionable ideas for draft resolutions, new programs, or amendments.

As you can see, the real work happens in the solutions.

The infographic drives this point home: the bulk of your effort should go into crafting detailed, well-thought-out solutions. This is what truly drives debate and forms the basis of resolutions. Top-tier conferences explicitly look for this. For example, Berkeley Model United Nations suggests dedicating a full 40% of your paper to proposed solutions—far more than the other two sections combined. This emphasis isn't accidental. It signals that MUN is about proactive problem-solving, not just restating old facts.

Building the Three Pillars of Your Paper

Alright, you've got your outline. Now it's time to put some meat on those bones and turn your research into a persuasive diplomatic argument. Your paper will stand on three core pillars: Topic Background, Country Policy, and your Proposed Solutions. Each one has a specific job to do.

Think of it like you're building a case in court. You start with the undisputed facts, then explain your client's (your country's) unique perspective, and finally, you lay out a clear path forward.

Crafting the Topic Background

This first section sets the stage. The goal here is to give a concise summary of the issue's history and current status. You're showing the chair that you're all on the same page and have a solid grasp of the fundamentals. This isn't a history thesis; it's a strategic summary.

Your focus word is relevance. Don't just list a bunch of dates. You need to connect those past events directly to the problem your committee is trying to solve right now.

Make sure this section hits on the essentials:

Key UN Resolutions: Name-drop the big ones, like UNSC Resolution 1325, that are central to the debate.

Major Treaties: Mention the core international agreements that define the current situation.

Pivotal Events: Briefly touch on the one or two historical moments that really set the current crisis in motion.

A great Topic Background doesn't just state facts—it shapes the story. You're subtly framing the problem in a way that will make your country’s solutions seem like the most logical path forward later on.

Digging up this information means sifting through a lot of noise. A critical skill for any delegate is learning how to spot credible, impactful sources. If you need to sharpen this skill, our guide on how to evaluate sources for MUN is a fantastic resource with practical tips.

Defining Your Country Policy

Now, you shift gears from the global overview to your nation's specific point of view. This is where you really step into your role as a diplomat. You need to articulate your country’s official stance with confidence and precision, proving you understand not just what your country thinks, but why it thinks that way.

Avoid generic fluff like "My country supports peace." That means nothing. You need to find hard evidence. Go searching for direct quotes from your Head of State, Foreign Minister, or UN Ambassador.

Your research here should uncover concrete proof:

Voting Records: How did your country vote on past UN resolutions about this topic?

Domestic Legislation: Does it have national laws that shape its international position?

Official Statements: What has your government said in official press releases or major speeches?

For instance, if you're representing Japan on nuclear disarmament, you absolutely have to bring up its unique history and its long-standing support for the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT). That level of detail is what makes your position believable.

Proposing Powerful Solutions

We've arrived at the most important part of your paper. This final pillar should be the longest and most detailed section. Here, you move from analyzing the past to shaping the future. You've laid out the problem and your country's perspective; now it's time to present your brilliant ideas for fixing it.

Every solution you propose must pass a two-part test: it needs to be innovative, but it also has to be diplomatically feasible for your assigned country. It doesn't matter how creative your idea is if it flatly contradicts your nation's core foreign policy—it'll be dead on arrival.

Brainstorm concrete, actionable ideas. "Promote international cooperation" is a useless platitude. You need to propose specific mechanisms.

Think along these lines:

Launch a New Fund: Propose a UN-administered fund for a specific purpose, complete with a clear mandate and ideas for how it could be funded.

Form a Working Group: Suggest creating a specialized group to tackle a complex part of the issue and report back to the main committee.

Amend an Existing Treaty: Pinpoint a specific weakness in a current treaty and write the exact language you'd use for an amendment.

Ultimately, your solutions are the engine of your entire MUN experience. They are what you’ll debate in committee, what you’ll build alliances around, and what will become the heart of your draft resolutions. This is your chance to prove to the chair that you’re not just a researcher—you’re a leader.

Let's Look at a Real Position Paper Example

Theory is great, but nothing makes the structure of a position paper click quite like seeing one in action. Let's walk through a complete paper, piece by piece, to see how the three core sections—Topic Background, Country Policy, and Solutions—really come together.

For this breakdown, I've picked a classic but tricky scenario.

Committee: Disarmament and International Security (DISEC)

Country: Japan

Topic: Regulation of Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems (LAWS)

This is a perfect example because it forces a delegate to navigate complex technology, touchy national security concerns, and a country with a very specific foreign policy stance.

Here's the sample paper. Pay close attention to how it flows from a broad overview to specific, actionable ideas.

Committee: Disarmament and International Security (DISEC) Topic: Regulation of Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems (LAWS) Country: The Delegation of Japan
I. Background of the Topic
The international community has reached a critical moment in the debate over Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems (LAWS). These are weapons that can independently search for, identify, and use lethal force against targets without direct human control, and they pose a fundamental challenge to both international humanitarian law (IHL) and the core principles of the UN Charter. Since 2014, discussions within the Group of Governmental Experts (GGE) on LAWS have revealed deep divisions. Nations are struggling to balance their own security needs with the huge ethical and legal risks of a new arms race. Key UN resolutions, like A/C.1/73/L.23, have urged for more dialogue, but a binding international treaty remains out of reach. At its heart, the debate is about ensuring meaningful human control, figuring out who is accountable for unintended actions, and upholding the principles of distinction and proportionality in warfare.
II. Japan's National Policy
Japan, guided by its constitutional commitment to peace, approaches the LAWS issue with extreme caution. As a global leader in robotics and artificial intelligence, Japan understands both the potential benefits and the grave dangers of this technology. We are a steadfast supporter of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW) and have been an active voice in every GGE meeting, pushing for a human-centric approach to AI in the security field. Our national policy is clear: any weapons system must remain under meaningful human control. While Japan does not currently possess or develop LAWS, we also feel that a total ban might be premature. Instead, we support creating a legally binding instrument that establishes clear prohibitions on specific systems that are inherently indiscriminate, while regulating others to ensure they strictly comply with IHL.
III. Proposed Solutions
To move from just talking to actually doing something, the Delegation of Japan puts forward a practical, three-part approach:
Establish a Tiered Regulatory Framework: Japan calls for a new protocol under the CCW that sorts LAWS into three tiers. Tier 1 (Prohibited) would include systems that can't possibly comply with IHL, like those designed to target humans without any chance for meaningful control. Tier 2 (Strictly Regulated) would cover systems with limited autonomy that require tough verification and testing protocols. Tier 3 (Permitted) would apply to purely defensive systems where human control is guaranteed.
Create a UN Verification and Compliance Body: We propose forming a specialized agency under the UN Office for Disarmament Affairs (UNODA) to monitor compliance. This group would be in charge of developing the technical standards for "meaningful human control" and conducting inspections to make sure national AI development in the military sector sticks to the agreed-upon rules.
Promote International Research Collaboration: Japan suggests launching a global initiative for joint research on the ethical and technical sides of AI in security. This would build transparency and consensus on best practices, making sure that technology doesn't outpace our ethical and legal safeguards.

The Strategy Behind the Words

So, what makes this paper work?

First, notice how the background section immediately frames the LAWS debate within existing UN bodies like the GGE. This is a quick way to signal to the chair that you've done your homework. Using the term "meaningful human control" is also a deliberate choice—it's the central keyword in this entire debate, and using it shows you're in the know.

The "Country Policy" section is where the real nuance comes in. It connects Japan's unique constitutional position and its tech leadership directly to the topic. It avoids a generic stance and instead carves out a specific, middle-ground policy: regulation, not an outright ban. This is a powerful position to have in committee because it opens up doors for building alliances.

Uncovering these specific policy points is crucial. If you're struggling with this part, you can explore our detailed guide on creating a MUN country profile to help you dig into the research.

Finally, the solutions aren't just wishful thinking; they are a direct extension of the policy that was just laid out. The three-pronged approach is specific and actionable, giving different blocs in the committee something to latch onto. The tiered framework, the new UN body, and the research initiative are all concrete ideas you can immediately turn into clauses for a draft resolution.

And that's the mark of a truly effective position paper—it isn't just a summary of your research. It's your strategic plan for the entire conference.

Polishing Your Paper with Proper Formatting

You can have the most brilliant research and groundbreaking solutions, but if your paper is a mess, it all gets lost. The final, critical step is to polish your position paper, making sure the formatting is crisp, professional, and meets the conference’s standards.

This isn’t just about making things look pretty. It’s about signaling to your chair that you’re a serious, detail-oriented delegate who respects the process. Think of it as the diplomatic uniform for your ideas. A sharp, well-formatted paper is easier to read and reference during the chaos of committee, building your credibility before the chair even finishes the first sentence.

Getting the Basics Right: Fonts and Spacing

Most MUN conferences will give you specific formatting rules. If they don't, you can't go wrong by sticking to the universally accepted standards that have developed over years of conferences. It’s the safe, professional bet.

Font: Stick with Times New Roman, 12pt. There's a reason it's the academic and professional go-to—it's clean, highly readable, and doesn't distract from your arguments.

Spacing: Go with single-spaced text, but add a standard double space (one blank line) between your paragraphs. This little trick lets you pack more information onto a single page without sacrificing readability.

Margins: Set your margins to 1 inch (2.54 cm) on all sides. This creates a clean, professional frame for your text and keeps the page from feeling crowded.

Paying attention to these small details shows you respect the conference and your chair's time. A clean mun position paper format example is one that follows these unwritten rules, making your arguments stand out for their substance, not their distracting layout.

These formatting rules weren't always so set in stone. As Model UN became more popular, major conferences started creating formal guidelines to handle the sheer volume of papers. For example, the Stanford Model United Nations Conference now requires Chicago citation style and puts a heavy emphasis on the solutions section. This reflects a bigger shift in MUN toward rewarding practical, well-researched policy ideas. You can see their specific requirements on the SMUNC website.

The Non-Negotiable: Proper Citations

Beyond the visual layout, citations are absolutely essential. This isn't optional. Properly citing your sources achieves two crucial goals: it validates the depth of your research and, just as importantly, it protects your academic integrity.

Frankly, a paper without citations is just a collection of opinions. A paper with them is a powerhouse of evidence-backed arguments.

While citation styles can differ from one conference to another (always check the rules!), the core principle is the same. You must give credit where credit is due for the reports, resolutions, and articles that shaped your position. This small step gives your claims immense authority. If you're new to this, it's worth taking a few minutes to get it right. Our guide on how to cite sources in MUN offers a clear breakdown of the best practices.

How Your Paper Becomes Your Secret Weapon

It’s easy to see the position paper as just another box to check before the conference. A lot of delegates treat it that way—a tedious homework assignment they rush through and then forget about. But let me tell you, that's a huge strategic misstep.

From my experience, a thoughtfully constructed paper is the single most powerful tool you can bring into committee. It's your secret weapon.

The act of writing it forces you to go deep. You’re not just skimming articles; you’re becoming a genuine expert on your topic and your country's precise angle on it. This work gives you a rock-solid foundation for every speech, every negotiation, and every debate that follows.

When a crisis update hits the committee, you won’t be the one panicking. You'll already know your nation's historical precedents and official stance, letting you act with confidence while others are still trying to figure out what's going on.

From Document to Playbook

Once you’re in committee, that paper you wrote transforms into your personal playbook. Think of it as your cheat sheet, loaded with the critical statistics, specific policy points, and pre-packaged solutions you spent hours researching.

While other delegates are frantically searching their notes, you can calmly flip to a page in your paper and pull out a killer fact or a fully-formed proposal. You’ve already done the hard work.

This level of preparedness is something experienced chairs spot immediately. They often read the position papers to identify the strongest delegates—the potential award winners—before the first gavel even falls. Your paper is your first impression, and it’s your best chance to signal that you’re a serious, strategic player.

Your position paper isn’t just an assignment you turn in; it's a strategic asset you bring into committee. It’s the difference between reacting to the debate and actively shaping it from the very first session.

The data backs this up. The National Model United Nations (NMUN) has found that delegates who submit well-researched, thorough position papers get noticed more often. We're talking a 20-30% higher rate of recognition from chairs and a much bigger influence on the final resolutions. Their own guidelines show a direct line from paper quality to delegate success. You can see NMUN's approach to position papers here.

A Tool for Diplomatic Dominance

Ultimately, a great paper sets the tone for your entire conference. It organizes your thoughts, clarifies your country’s objectives, and gives you a clear roadmap for what you want to achieve.

This kind of structured thinking is a skill that goes far beyond MUN. The ability to create a well-structured document is a powerful tool in any field. If you want to see how these principles apply in other areas, check out how professionals Create an Effective Design Document Template.

By treating your position paper with this level of seriousness, you turn it from a simple document into your best asset, allowing you to walk into every debate with confidence and a clear plan to win.

Answering Your Top Position Paper Questions

Even experienced delegates can get tripped up by the details of a position paper. Let's walk through some of the questions that come up time and time again. Getting these right will give you the confidence to focus on what really matters: your research and strategy.

My goal here is to cut through the confusion and give you clear, actionable answers.

Getting the Length and Sourcing Right

How long should my position paper actually be?

Stick to one page, single-spaced. This is the gold standard for nearly every conference out there.

While you might occasionally see a conference that allows for two pages, chairs always appreciate a delegate who can make a powerful point concisely. Think of it as a test of your ability to distill a country's complex foreign policy into its most essential components. When in doubt, always, always check your specific conference's rules—they are the final word.

How many sources do I need to cite?

This is a classic case of quality over quantity. Aim for 3-5 really solid sources. I'm talking about official UN documents, reports from your country's foreign ministry, or data from well-respected NGOs and international organizations.

Citing a handful of authoritative sources shows you've done your homework far better than a long list of questionable ones. Also, double-check if your conference has a preferred citation style, like Chicago or MLA. It's a small detail that shows you're paying attention.

Nailing the Content and Structure

What's the most important part of the paper?

Every section plays a role in building your argument, but if I had to pick one, it's your Proposed Solutions. This is where you really get to shine.

Your solutions are what will drive the debate in your committee room. They’re the foundation of draft resolutions and the clearest signal of your preparation and creativity. A paper with innovative, practical, and well-argued solutions will always grab a chair's attention.

Is it okay to use a position paper template?

Of course! Using a structural template or a mun position paper format example is a great way to make sure your paper has the right flow and hits all the required elements. It provides the skeleton.

But remember, the heart and soul of the paper—the research, the analysis, the unique ideas—have to be 100% yours. The template is just the guide; the substance is what makes your paper stand out and sets you up for success.

Ready to turn all this theory into an award-winning performance? Model Diplomat acts as your AI-powered co-delegate, helping you master your research, write speeches that land, and build a winning strategy. You'll walk into your next committee session feeling totally prepared and confident. Start your free trial today.

A Winning MUN Position Paper Format Example