Clique of Cyrus the Great
Chair: Konrad Weeda (kcweeda@uchicago.edu)
Crisis Director: Kasra Naftchi (kcweeda@uchicago.edu)
This committee, set in 558 BCE and progressing over the following years, will address issues confronting the newly formed Persian Empire. The committee, consisting of relatives and retainers of Cyrus the Great, of the Achaemenid family, will already be in control of substantial territory acquired at the fall of the Empire of the Medes (ruled until its fall by Cyrus' grandfather Astyages). Delegates will need to construct some kind of Persian state apparatus founded upon family connections, cult of personality, Zoroastrianism, and/or another institution. Stabilizing Persia and uniting its disparate territories will be an important task for the committee. Simultaneously, territorial expansion is highly desirable and necessary to fuel a growing state apparatus.
The committee will need to face various powerful neighbors in the Near East, namely Lydia and Babylon. Delegates must decide how to deal with older, more firmly established empires with their own sets of cultural traditions. The Clique of Cyrus the Great will be an exciting committee experience as delegates attempt to build the greatest empire the world has ever seen.