Where is the MAA Welcome Party taking place?

The MAA Welcome Party is scheduled to take place in Hong Kong, a prominent city in Asia.

What is the primary purpose of the MAA Welcome Party?

The welcome party serves as a social gathering for participants, offering an opportunity for networking and informal interaction in Hong Kong.

MAA Welcome Party

Mar 14–14, 2026Hong Kong, Hong KongIn-person

ConcludedRegistration closed

The MAA Welcome Party is an introductory event held in Hong Kong, serving as a social gathering for participants. This event is designed to foster connections and provide a relaxed environment for attendees before the main proceedings commence. It offers an opportunity for networking among individuals involved in the MAA activities.

Topics & background

The history behind each committee topic and the states that shape it.

Regulating Autonomous Weapons Systems to Prevent Escalation and Ensure Human Oversight

Debate over lethal autonomous weapons systems (LAWS) has been formalized at the UN since 2014, when the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW) established an informal Group of Governmental Experts (GGE) on the issue. The GGE adopted eleven guiding principles in 2019, affirming that international humanitarian law applies fully to such systems and that human responsibility must be retained, but discussions have repeatedly stalled over whether to pursue a legally binding instrument or rely on non-binding codes of conduct. A coalition of states from Latin America, Africa, and the Non-Aligned Movement, alongside the International Committee of the Red Cross, has pushed for a treaty banning fully autonomous lethal systems, while several major military powers favour national policy frameworks. Battlefield use of loitering munitions and AI-enabled targeting in Nagorno-Karabakh, Ukraine, and Gaza has accelerated the urgency of the debate. In December 2023, the UN General Assembly adopted Resolution 78/241 calling for a Secretary-General's report on LAWS, and in 2024 the Assembly endorsed continued substantive negotiations. The core dispute today concerns the definition of 'meaningful human control,' verification of autonomy thresholds in dual-use AI, and whether the CCW or a new forum should host any future instrument.

Key players

Balancing National Security and Personal Privacy in the Era of Smart-City Surveillance Technologies

Smart-city deployments have spread rapidly over the past decade, integrating CCTV networks, facial recognition, licence-plate readers, predictive policing software, and IoT sensors into urban governance. Chinese firms such as Hikvision, Dahua, and Huawei have exported integrated 'Safe City' platforms to more than eighty countries, while Western vendors including Palantir, NEC, and Thales market comparable systems. Governments justify these tools as essential to counterterrorism, crime prevention, and traffic management, but civil society groups and UN human rights mechanisms have documented chilling effects on assembly, expression, and minority communities. The OHCHR's 2022 report on the right to privacy in the digital age warned that biometric mass surveillance is rarely compatible with international human rights law, and the EU's 2024 AI Act imposed strict limits on real-time remote biometric identification in public spaces. Cases including the use of facial recognition in Xinjiang, Moscow's metro system, and London's Metropolitan Police trials illustrate the divergence in legal regimes. The core dispute centres on proportionality, oversight mechanisms, cross-border data flows, and whether export controls should apply to surveillance technology sold to states with weak rule-of-law protections.

Key players

Preventing the Use of AI-Generated Deepfakes as Tools of Information Warfare

Synthetic media generated by generative adversarial networks and diffusion models has moved from research labs to mass availability since 2017, and has been weaponized in political and military contexts. Documented incidents include a 2022 deepfake of Ukrainian President Zelensky purporting to order surrender, fabricated audio of political candidates in Slovakia's 2023 election, AI-generated robocalls impersonating US President Biden in the 2024 New Hampshire primary, and coordinated synthetic content campaigns linked to Russian, Chinese, and Iranian influence operations identified by OpenAI, Meta, and Microsoft threat reports. Governance responses have been fragmented. The EU AI Act imposes transparency obligations on synthetic content, China's 2023 deep synthesis regulations require watermarking, and the US has pursued sector-specific rules and executive orders. At the multilateral level, the UNESCO Recommendation on the Ethics of AI, the Global Digital Compact adopted in 2024, and ongoing OHCHR work address the issue, but there is no binding international framework. The core dispute concerns reconciling freedom of expression with election integrity and national security, technical standards for provenance and watermarking, platform liability, and how to attribute and respond to state-sponsored synthetic content campaigns.

Key players

Preparing Least Developed Countries for an AI-Driven Global Economy and Future Labour Markets

Least Developed Countries, as defined by the UN Committee for Development Policy, comprise 45 states home to roughly 1.1 billion people. The IMF's 2024 staff discussion note estimated that around 40 percent of global jobs are exposed to AI, but only about 26 percent in low-income economies, reflecting both lower automation risk and limited capacity to capture AI-driven productivity gains. UNCTAD's 2025 Technology and Innovation Report similarly warned that AI value chains are concentrated in a handful of economies, with 100 firms accounting for 40 percent of global private R&D in AI, leaving LDCs at risk of a widening 'AI divide.' The Doha Programme of Action for LDCs (2022-2031) and the Global Digital Compact adopted in 2024 commit the international community to capacity building, infrastructure investment, and equitable access to AI. However, persistent gaps in electricity, broadband, data centres, computing power, and STEM education constrain LDC participation. The core dispute concerns financing mechanisms, technology transfer obligations, the treatment of cross-border data flows in trade agreements, protections for workers displaced by automation in outsourcing-dependent economies, and whether dedicated AI-for-development funds should be channelled through existing institutions or new mechanisms.

Key players

Ensuring the Stability of Global Trade by Addressing Escalating Tensions in the Strait of Hormuz and Other Strategic Maritime Corridors

Roughly 20 percent of global oil consumption and around a quarter of seaborne LNG transits the Strait of Hormuz, while the Bab el-Mandeb, Suez Canal, Strait of Malacca, Panama Canal, and Turkish Straits collectively channel the bulk of world trade. The Hormuz corridor has been a recurrent flashpoint since the Iran-Iraq Tanker War of the 1980s, with Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps repeatedly seizing or harassing commercial vessels — most recently the Saviz, Hankuk Chemi, Advantage Sweet, St Nikolas, and MSC Aries between 2021 and 2024 — in response to Western sanctions and regional confrontations. Since late 2023, Houthi attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and Bab el-Mandeb have forced a large share of Asia-Europe traffic to reroute around the Cape of Good Hope, raising freight rates and emissions. Drought-driven transit restrictions through the Panama Canal in 2023-2024 and the suspension of the Black Sea Grain Initiative further illustrate chokepoint fragility. Operations Prosperity Guardian (US-led) and Aspides (EU) now patrol the region, while the IMO, UNCLOS framework, and bilateral arrangements struggle to keep pace. The core dispute concerns freedom of navigation under UNCLOS, the legitimacy and scope of escort coalitions, sanctions enforcement on shadow fleets, and de-escalation channels with Iran and other littoral actors.

Key players

Safeguarding Global Trade from Emerging Threats: Maritime Drones, Cyber-Hijacking, and Modern Piracy

Conventional piracy has shifted geographically since its early-2010s peak off Somalia, with the Gulf of Guinea, the Singapore Strait, and parts of the Sulu and Celebes Seas now accounting for most incidents reported to the IMB and ReCAAP. At the same time, the threat envelope has expanded: Houthi forces have used uncrewed surface vessels (USVs), anti-ship ballistic missiles, and explosive drone boats against Red Sea shipping since 2023, Ukrainian Magura and Sea Baby USVs have reshaped Black Sea naval operations, and cyber incidents — from the 2017 NotPetya attack on Maersk to GPS spoofing in the Black Sea and Persian Gulf — have demonstrated the vulnerability of digitized ports and bridge systems. The IMO's 2017 Maritime Cyber Risk Management guidelines, the Djibouti Code of Conduct (Jeddah Amendment), and the Yaoundé Architecture for the Gulf of Guinea provide partial frameworks, while UNCLOS and the SUA Convention define the legal baseline. However, gaps remain on the status of USVs under the law of the sea, attribution and response to cyber attacks on shipping, insurance and salvage in contested waters, and capacity building for coastal states. The core dispute concerns balancing flag-state, port-state, and coastal-state responsibilities, and how multilateral mechanisms can adapt faster than the threat landscape.

Key players

The Venezuela Crisis: Preventing Regional Destabilisation and Strengthening Human Security

Venezuela's political and economic collapse, accelerating since 2014, has produced the largest displacement crisis in the Western Hemisphere, with more than 7.7 million Venezuelans having left the country according to the R4V inter-agency platform — most hosted by Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, Brazil, and Chile. The crisis is rooted in falling oil output, hyperinflation, US and EU sanctions imposed from 2017 onward, and the contested legitimacy of the Maduro government following the 2018 and 2024 presidential elections, the latter denounced by the OAS, the EU, and a UN panel of experts as lacking credible results. The July 2024 election and its aftermath, in which opposition candidate Edmundo González and leader María Corina Machado claimed victory based on published tally sheets, triggered renewed repression, fresh outflows, and the reinstatement of US oil sanctions. Tensions with Guyana over the Essequibo region — subject to ongoing proceedings at the International Court of Justice — have added an inter-state dimension. The core dispute concerns recognition and mediation pathways (Norway-facilitated Barbados process, Mexico City talks), sanctions calibration, humanitarian access, regularization of Venezuelan migrants in host states, and prevention of armed escalation on the Guyana border.

Key players

Forced Displacement as a Strategic Tool: Security Implications of Manipulated Migration Flows

The instrumentalisation of migration — deliberate state action to channel or weaponise displaced people for political leverage — has become an increasingly visible feature of contemporary security politics. Scholarly work by Kelly Greenhill on 'coercive engineered migration' identifies dozens of historical cases, but recent examples have brought the issue to multilateral attention: Belarus's 2021 channelling of third-country nationals toward the Polish, Lithuanian, and Latvian borders; repeated episodes at the Spain-Morocco border around Ceuta and Melilla; Turkey's 2020 opening of its Greek border; and Russia's mass deportations of Ukrainians documented by the OSCE Moscow Mechanism and the ICC's 2023 arrest warrants. NATO and the EU have characterised such actions as 'hybrid threats,' and the EU adopted an Instrumentalisation Regulation as part of its 2024 Migration and Asylum Pact. The 2018 Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration and the 1951 Refugee Convention remain the baseline frameworks, but tensions exist between non-refoulement obligations and states' security responses, which have included pushbacks condemned by UNHCR and the European Court of Human Rights. The core dispute concerns how to deter instrumentalisation without eroding asylum, how to share responsibility among frontline and destination states, and how to distinguish coerced flows from broader mixed migration driven by conflict, climate, and economic pressure.

Key players

Key terms & resources

The concepts worth knowing before MAA Welcome Party, plus lessons and profiles to go deeper.

Autonomous Weapons Systems Autonomous Weapon Systems Article 52 (Regional Arrangements)ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF)autonomous (unilateral) sanctions Central National Security Commission (PRC)

In the news

Recent reporting to ground your prep

Virginia Joins National Popular Vote Compact

Story

North Korea's Nuclear Navy Developments

Story

Nabha Security Incident Exposes Punjab Issues

Story

India Naval Edge: Three Ships Commissioned

Story

Frequently asked questions

Related conferences

MAA Welcome Party

Mar 14–14, 2026Hong Kong, Hong KongIn-person

ConcludedRegistration closed

Topics & background

The history behind each committee topic and the states that shape it.

Regulating Autonomous Weapons Systems to Prevent Escalation and Ensure Human Oversight

Key players

Balancing National Security and Personal Privacy in the Era of Smart-City Surveillance Technologies

Key players

Preventing the Use of AI-Generated Deepfakes as Tools of Information Warfare

Key players

Preparing Least Developed Countries for an AI-Driven Global Economy and Future Labour Markets

Key players

Ensuring the Stability of Global Trade by Addressing Escalating Tensions in the Strait of Hormuz and Other Strategic Maritime Corridors

Key players

Safeguarding Global Trade from Emerging Threats: Maritime Drones, Cyber-Hijacking, and Modern Piracy

Key players

The Venezuela Crisis: Preventing Regional Destabilisation and Strengthening Human Security

Key players

Forced Displacement as a Strategic Tool: Security Implications of Manipulated Migration Flows

Key players

Key terms & resources

The concepts worth knowing before MAA Welcome Party, plus lessons and profiles to go deeper.

Autonomous Weapons Systems Autonomous Weapon Systems Article 52 (Regional Arrangements)ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF)autonomous (unilateral) sanctions Central National Security Commission (PRC)

In the news

Recent reporting to ground your prep

Virginia Joins National Popular Vote Compact

Story

North Korea's Nuclear Navy Developments

Story

Nabha Security Incident Exposes Punjab Issues

Story

India Naval Edge: Three Ships Commissioned

Story

Topics & background

Key terms & resources

Frequently asked questions

Related conferences

Luminary Cup: Chinese Mooting Competition 2026

24th Red Cross International Humanitarian Law Moot (Asia-Pacific Region)

23rd Willem C. Vis East International Commercial Arbitration Moot 2026

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The 23rd Annual Willem C. Vis East International Commercial Arbitration Moot

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Luminary Cup: Chinese Mooting Competition 2026

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23rd Willem C. Vis East International Commercial Arbitration Moot 2026

23rd Vis East Moot Oral Arguments

Twenty-Third Annual Willem C. Vis East International Commercial Arbitration Moot 2025-2026

The 23rd Annual Willem C. Vis East International Commercial Arbitration Moot

Topics & background

Key terms & resources

Frequently asked questions

Related conferences

Luminary Cup: Chinese Mooting Competition 2026

24th Red Cross International Humanitarian Law Moot (Asia-Pacific Region)

23rd Willem C. Vis East International Commercial Arbitration Moot 2026

23rd Vis East Moot Oral Arguments

Twenty-Third Annual Willem C. Vis East International Commercial Arbitration Moot 2025-2026

The 23rd Annual Willem C. Vis East International Commercial Arbitration Moot

Related conferences

Luminary Cup: Chinese Mooting Competition 2026

24th Red Cross International Humanitarian Law Moot (Asia-Pacific Region)

23rd Willem C. Vis East International Commercial Arbitration Moot 2026

23rd Vis East Moot Oral Arguments

Twenty-Third Annual Willem C. Vis East International Commercial Arbitration Moot 2025-2026

The 23rd Annual Willem C. Vis East International Commercial Arbitration Moot