Topic: Rising Nationalism and Political Extremism
Country: Venezuela
Delegate Name: Tananya Prankprakma
School: Forest Hills Central High School
Topic page: background guide and all position papers All Venezuela position papers GLIMUN 2018 committees
In the recent past, there has been a global revival of nationalism and with it, political extremism. This revival can be seen in nations in Europe like Poland and Turkey, but it can also be seen worldwide in nations such as the United States and Philippines. Nationalistic ideologies can have extensive negative effects, an example being World War I. In Venezuela, a past struggle has been resource nationalism, which only caused some instability in the oil industry. Other than that however, Venezuela doesn’t have nationalist movements and is deeply concerned by highly nationalistic and extreme governments around the world that don’t take into consideration other countries’ well-beings.
Having a nationalistic or extreme government is a problem that is very difficult to deal with not just internationally, but domestically. People with differing ideologies are not heard and the in some cases government controls all. In Venezuela, the problem comes from a small minority of the population. There are extreme and violent protests that will often end up in death. In 2017 alone, 165 people died in protests. The government didn’t want to have to do so, but since then protests have been banned for the safety of the people. While this is a big problem, it should be dealt with domestically and Venezuela still believes solutions should be focused on international effects of nationalism and political extremism. Many problems faced today, like climate change and nuclear proliferation and disarmament, are things that nations cannot go into alone. These problems will only be solved if there is international cooperation.
Venezuela is concerned by the growing trend of imposing sanctions instead of approaching problems in a just and collective way. Speaking for the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), Venezuela discourages the use of force and sanctions at the risk of innocent civilians. Venezuela would like to see resolutions that encourage multilateralism and urge the increased use of the International Court of Justice. History has been made already; there is no need to do it again. We as a global community must take a look at our past and learn from our mistakes.
