Georgetown International Relations Club

The Georgetown International Relations Club (GIRC) is one of the largest and oldest student groups on the campus of Georgetown University in Washington, DC. According to the organization's website, the primary mission of GIRC is "To offer Members of the IRC and the University community opportunities for education and reflection on international affairs through engagement with expert sources and simulation of the international system through such activities as Model United Nations and other related programs." GIRC sponsors numerous lecture and discussion events on campus, provides staff for a variety of international affairs conferences and university programs, and operates one of the most successful competitive Model United Nations teams at the collegiate level.
History
The history of the Georgetown International Relations Club is closely linked with that of the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service (SFS). In 1923, four years after the establishment of the SFS as a constituent component of the University, the Current Events Club was founded for the purpose of providing a student forum for the discussion of contemporary foreign affairs. In 1932, the Current Events Club was renamed the "International Relations Club," a name that has persisted uninterrupted to this day. In 1969, members of the IRC founded the Georgetown International Relations Association, Inc. (GIRA), a 501(c)3 non-profit corporation, for the purpose of supporting the North American Invitational Model United Nations (NAIMUN), a high-school level Model UN conference that had grown too large for the financial and legal resources of the university's student activities oversight body. With over 3000 participants, NAIMUN is currently in its 46th year and is the largest high-school level Model UN in the Western Hemisphere and the second largest in the world after The Hague International Model United Nations (THIMUN). Since 1972, GIRA has also overseen the National Collegiate Security Conference (NCSC), a respected college-level international simulation conference that marks the opening of the university Model UN circuit every Columbus Day Weekend. GIRC members constitute the all-volunteer staffs of both NAIMUN and NCSC.

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