North American Invitational Model United Nations
NAIMUN · Georgetown International Relations Association · Washington, D.C.
North American Invitational Model United Nations (NAIMUN) is the high-school MUN conference run by the Georgetown International Relations Association (GIA). Held each February in Washington, D.C., NAIMUN is one of the largest high-school MUN conferences in the U.S. and is widely considered the gold standard for crisis-committee design on the high-school circuit. Its proximity to D.C. policy institutions and its long-running Joint Crisis Committees make it a distinctive conference.
History
NAIMUN has been run by GIA at Georgetown for decades and has become one of the most established names in U.S. high-school MUN. The conference's crisis program — particularly its Joint Crisis Committees (JCCs) — has produced procedural and committee-design innovations that have spread across the broader MUN community.
Georgetown's School of Foreign Service and the broader D.C. policy environment shape NAIMUN's ethos: chairs and staff are unusually fluent in actual policy mechanics.
Format and committees
NAIMUN runs a standard mix of GA, ECOSOC, specialized, regional, and crisis committees. The crisis program — single cabinets, paired/joint cabinets, and larger Joint Crisis simulations — is the conference's signature.
JCCs at NAIMUN are particularly demanding: two or more cabinets play through a shared crisis with overlapping directives, communiqués, and crisis updates. Pacing is fast and the substantive bar is high.
Who attends
NAIMUN draws strongly from the East Coast travel-team circuit and has meaningful international representation. Many of the top U.S. high-school competitive programs put NAIMUN at the center of their season.
The conference is invitational but accepts a wide range of school types, from large competitive teams to smaller programs.
What makes it distinct
Crisis design at NAIMUN is the differentiator. If you want to learn how serious crisis committees actually work — backroom mechanics, joint personal directives, communiqués, crisis updates with real strategic stakes — NAIMUN is one of the best venues to do it as a high-schooler.
The D.C. setting also matters: many delegates use NAIMUN as a chance to visit policy institutions, congressional offices, and embassies during their trip.
How to prepare
- If assigned to a JCC, coordinate with allied delegates in the parallel cabinet before the conference if you can — the conference rules permit pre-conference research and basic strategy alignment.
- Master the difference between a directive, a communiqué, a press release, and a personal directive. NAIMUN chairs assume delegates know.
- Build a binder of your character's historical positions, allies, and adversaries — chairs reward in-character moves grounded in real history.
Dates, registration, fees, committees, and background guides for the current edition live on the conference's own site. We don't mirror them — they change.
Prep with Atlas
Research your country, draft your position paper, and prep for committee.
Ask Atlas about NAIMUN