Always a pleasure to start our annual series of Polar Aspect MACs by returning to Wycombe Abbey for the Wycombe Model Arctic Council (WYCOMAC) — with this past weekend’s conference our fourth WYCOMAC since launching the programme in 2020.

As with the WYCOMAC 3 conference last year, WYCOMAC 4 was an intimate simulation set in Wycombe Abbey’s senior management boardroom, complete with a small annex where delegates could conduct informal discussions.  Twelve delegates from nine schools — sadly three delegates from a tenth school were unable to attend — made very full use of that annex as they conducted some detailed negotiations on Marine Protected Areas in the Arctic.

The topic was complex, mixing not only the usual MAC questions of environmental protection, sustainable development and Indigenous rights, but also questions of maritime law, marine boundaries and high-seas cooperation that are still unsettled points of contention in the real world of diplomacy.  The delegates rose to the challenge well.  Though their negotiations were sometimes tense, they ultimately reached consensus agreement on a ‘High Wycombe Declaration’ — even if it was pretty much at the last minute!

Congratulations to them — not only for concluding their meetings with an agreement, but also for having developed valuable skills in persuasion, negotiation, and consensus building, which will serve them well no matter where life takes them after school.

Many thanks as always to Wycombe Abbey for hosting WYCOMAC, and to Caitlin Fox for serving as WYCOMAC 4 Deputy Director (and for sacrificing her appearance in the family photo above to be the photographer)!

Wycombe Abbey has invited us back for WYCOMAC 5 in January 2025 — already looking forward to it.