scholarly journals With Frenemies Like These: Rising Power Voting Behavior in the UN General Assembly

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Martin Binder ◽  
Autumn Lockwood Payton
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Spatial Modeling ◽  
Voting Behavior ◽  
General Assembly ◽  
Rising Powers ◽  
Heterogenous Group ◽  
Modeling Techniques ◽  
Un General Assembly ◽  
Rising Power ◽  
International Status

Abstract The rise of non-Western powers has led to competing claims about how these states act among each other and how they behave vis-à-vis established powers. Existing accounts argue that the rising powers are a heterogenous group of competing states and that they are socialized into the existing Western-centered order. This article challenges these claims, arguing that the rising powers are dissatisfied with the international status quo and that they have begun to form a bloc against the established powers. The authors contend that this dissatisfaction arises from their lack of influence on the international stage, their status in the international hierarchy and the norms that sustain the current international order. They maintain that the formation of a rising powers bloc is driven by the countries’ economic growth and international dynamics, fostering their institutionalization as IBSA (India, Brazil, South Africa) and BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa). To support this argument, the study combines spatial modeling techniques to analyze rising power voting behavior in the UN General Assembly over the period 1992–2011.

scholarly journals What Determines Foreign Policy in Latin America? Systemic versus Domestic Factors in Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico, 1946–2008

2015 ◽  
Vol 57 (4) ◽  
pp. 1-27 ◽  
Author(s):  
Octavio Amorim Neto ◽  
Andrés Malamud
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Voting Behavior ◽  
Domestic Politics ◽  
International System ◽  
The United States ◽  
General Assembly ◽  
The Political ◽  
Un General Assembly ◽  
Systemic Variables

AbstractIs it domestic politics or the international system that more decisively influences foreign policy? This article focuses on Latin America's three largest powers to identify patterns and compare outcomes in their relations with the regional hegemon, the United States. Through a statistical analysis of voting behavior in the UN General Assembly, we examine systemic variables (both realist and liberal) and domestic variables (institutional, ideological, and bureaucratic) to determine their relative weights between 1946 and 2008. The study includes 4,900 votes, the tabulation of 1,500 ministers according to their ideological persuasion, all annual trade entries, and an assessment of the political strength of presidents, cabinets, and parties per year. The findings show that while Argentina's voting behavior has been determined mostly by domestic factors and Mexico's by realist systemic ones, Brazil's has a more complex blend of determinants, but also with a prevalence of realist systemic variables.

Quantitative Techniques for Studying Voting Behavior in the un General Assembly

1960 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 291-306 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leroy N. Rieselbach
Keyword(s):  
Systematic Study ◽  
Voting Behavior ◽  
International Organization ◽  
General Assembly ◽  
Legislative Behavior ◽  
Scholarly Writing ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
New Techniques ◽  
Un General Assembly ◽  
State Of Affairs

Much popular and scholarly writing abounds with references to blocs in the UN General Assembly, but there has been little systematic study of the actual patterns of group alignment in that body. This state of affairs may have resulted from the difficulties inherent in applying to international organization the methods used to analyze domestic legislative behavior. However, social scientists have recently developed some new techniques which may help to simplify this task and allow us to use quantitative procedures to study voting behavior in the General Assembly. This article will attempt to point out the difficulties encountered in analyzing bloc voting, and to indicate possible solutions, based on the use of quantitative techniques.

scholarly journals Rising Powers and Peacebuilding

2021 ◽  
pp. 299-313
Author(s):  
Kai Michael Kenkel
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Global South ◽  
International Order ◽  
Rising Powers ◽  
The Past ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
Global Peace ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Rising Power

Over the past two decades, a number of states have risen to take on substantial roles in peacebuilding efforts across the globe. China, Brazil, India, South Africa, and Turkey, among others, have become major players in their regions and beyond. This chapter analyzes how peacebuilding serves as the locus for these states to contest the rules underpinning the international order and to stake their claim to influence. These states have to date worked within the dominant liberal paradigm rather than revamping it; thus they have brought significant improvements in legitimacy and efficacy through their domestic experiences. The chapter identifies the commonalities that Southern rising powers apply to peacebuilding, as well as divergent characteristics that hamper its spread. It provides a definition of this class of states apt for analyzing their peace policies and crystallizes elements of a Southern-based rising-power contribution to global peace. Examples are given of how these states have sought to multilateralize their cooperation and act consistently within the United Nations. The analysis then takes a closer look at the practices of Brazil and India, two major rising powers from the Global South.

‘A most auspicious begining’: the 1946 United Nations General Assembly and the question of the treatment of Indians in South Africa

1990 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 131-153 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lorna Lloyd
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
United Nations ◽  
General Assembly ◽  
United Nations General ◽  
International Obligations ◽  
United Nations General Assembly ◽  
Un General Assembly ◽  
The Government

On 22 June 1946 the Government of India asked that the treatment of Indians in South Africa be placed on the agenda of the Second Part of the First UN General Assembly. This was the first dispute to be taken to the General Assembly and it resulted in the UN's first attack on South Africa. From the perspective of the 1990s the only striking thing about the 1946 UN resolution is its mild tone and the limitation of its criticism to South Africa's, policies relating to just one group. However, from the perspective of 1946 it is remarkable that the UN should even have discussed South Africa's treatment of her Indian citizens, let alone have decided by a two-thirds majority that she had failed to treat them in conformity with. her international obligations and the relevant provisions of the UN Charter.

Third World solidarity: the Group of 77 in the UN General Assembly

1988 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 375-395 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keisuke Iida
Keyword(s):  
Voting Behavior ◽  
Third World ◽  
General Assembly ◽  
Leadership Model ◽  
Coordination Model ◽  
The Third ◽  
Systemic Theory ◽  
Un General Assembly ◽  
Interest Model ◽  
The Third World

The voting behavior of the Third World states in the United Nations shows that the Third World unity increased in the 1980s. Systemic theory reveals that changes in the power of the Third World could partly account for the increased unity. For a more complete explanation, I examine three models of the Group of 77—the communityof- interest model, the leadership model, and the reciprocal coordination model—and find that the data support the reciprocal coordination model most consistently.

The behavior of the ministates in the United Nations, 1971–1972

1976 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 109-127 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph R. Harbert
Keyword(s):  
Voting Behavior ◽  
General Assembly ◽  
Small States ◽  
Political Sophistication ◽  
Cultural Issues ◽  
Large Power ◽  
Political Issues ◽  
Relative Independence ◽  
The Us ◽  
Un General Assembly

This article examines the voting behavior of the exceptionally small states (population less than one million) in the UN General Assembly. It uses modified Rice-Beyle techniques (Index of Cohesion and Index of Agreement) to measure the cohesiveness of 23 ministates in four issue-areas: political, colonial, economic, and social, humanitarian and cultural. Ministate voting patterns are compared with those of the US, the USSR, the former colonial powers, and the African-Asian caucusing group. The study's major findings are that: 1) there is greatest ministate cohesion on colonial and economic issues and less cohesion on social, humanitarian, and cultural questions. Political issues divide the ministates; 2) the ministates and the USSR vote similarly on colonial and economic questions, whereas the ministates' voting is more similar to that of the US and the colonial powers on social, humanitarian, and cultural issues. On political issues the ministates are neither a bloc nor the subservient clients of the superpowers; 3) with few exceptions ministate voting patterns are similar to those of the African-Asian group in the UN. These findings extend the generalizations of Kay, et al., with reference to the concerns of the newer nations. In addition, the findings indicate that size alone does not appear to be a significant differentiating variable. The existence of shifting alignments and majorities in different issue-areas underscores the political sophistication and relative independence from large power pressure of ministate voting in the UN.

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