MAL: Model Arab League: Why Participate?

MAL provides primarily American but also Arab and other international students opportunities to develop invaluable leadership skills. There is no comparable opportunity that allows emerging leaders to learn firsthand what it is like to put themselves in the shoes of real-life Arab diplomats and other foreign affairs practitioners. In the process students come to realize unavoidably and inevitably how different these realities of international relations are in comparison to what they previously thought and wrongly assumed to be true.

Grappling with the international challenges of representing the needs, concerns, interests, and foreign policy objectives of a government other than their own, and especially that of an Arab country, has obvious merit in and of itself. The Models provide in practicing and mastering what it takes to become proficient in public affairs leadership abilities.

In the process, students not only deepen their knowledge and understanding of the Arab world and its peoples, but they have an extraordinary chance to develop and practice useful analytical, organizational, writing, editing, and public speaking skills. In so doing they strengthen their ability to engage in the art of reasoned argument and spirited debate, and become better prepared to be knowledgeable, well-trained, and effective citizens as well as civic and public affairs leaders.

In the process, they have an unparalleled opportunity to hone and refine leadership attributes that for many are often unavailable or otherwise difficult to acquire in the course of reading a book, viewing films, videos, or television, listening to a specialist, participating in academic classes, attending briefings, or accessing blogs and the Internet.

Model Arab League helps prepare students to be knowledgeable, well-trained, and effective citizens as well as civic and public affairs activists. The skill sets acquired and practiced in the course of the Models are designed to serve the participants well regardless of the career or profession they elect to pursue.