Dear all,

 

There are conferences, and then there are institutions.

For two decades, DSMUN has stood as one of those perfect meritocracies where all that ultimately matters is the strength of your will, the merit of your character, your commitment to dialogue, and the fire with which you pursue what you believe in. 

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This year, however, we wanted something more.

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At a time when conferences increasingly risk becoming repetitive imitations of one another, DSMUN 2026 has been built with a deliberate determination to resist convention. Our aim has been not merely to organise another edition, but to create one that sets itself unmistakably apart. There is a pursuit of excellence here that is difficult to describe until one has witnessed it closely: an insistence that every detail matters, that standards are upheld, and that the conference should reflect the same discipline and ambition that define the institution hosting it. 

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That spirit has defined DSMUN for years, and it is what continues to set this conference apart. Because for three days, what you bring to the table determines what you take away from it, for DSMUN does not belong to those who merely attend it. It belongs to those willing to earn their place within it.

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At DSMUN, you become part of something larger than a three-day Conference. You step briefly into the legacy of nearly ninety years of The Doon School and almost two decades of DSMUN itself — a tradition shaped by generations who understood that institutions endure only when each generation chooses to leave them stronger than it found them. You sit in the same rooms, walk the same corridors, and inherit, however briefly, an institution built on argument, curiosity, discipline, and leadership.

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This year’s committees reflect a world defined by neither simplicity nor stability. From interventionism and new-age imperialism to questions of sovereignty, conflict, intelligence, legality, and power, DSMUN 2026 confronts a world increasingly unstable and unwilling to offer easy answers. Whether in the pre-Partition Cabinet of India drawing lines that will shape a nation’s future, in the Joint Crisis Committee navigating superpower rivalry at the height of ideological confrontation, in a futuristic crisis where every decision carries civilisational consequence, or in bodies like the United Nations Security Council and United Nations General Assembly First Committee confronting the defining fractures of our age, you will quickly discover that rhetoric alone is never enough.

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Yet beyond mandates and motions, DSMUN has always offered something equally valuable: the rare chance to encounter minds unlike your own. Some of the most enduring memories of conferences are rarely confined to speeches delivered under formal procedure. They are found in hurried negotiations between sessions, in arguments continued over meals, in friendships built between schools and cities, and in the quiet recognition that debate, at its best, is not conflict but understanding pursued honestly.

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As Secretary-General, my hope is simple — that every delegate leaves this conference having spoken more bravely, thought more deeply, and understood more fully than when they arrived.

As you arrive in Chandbagh this year, you are not merely arriving at another conference.

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You are stepping into a standard.

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And that standard now waits to be defined by you.

Sincerely,
Ayaan Mittal
Secretary-General
DSMUN 2026