Aid for Vote? United Nations General Assembly Voting and American Aid Allocation

2017 ◽  
Vol 66 (4) ◽  
pp. 1002-1026 ◽  
Author(s):  
Byungwon Woo ◽  
Eunbin Chung
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
United Nations ◽  
A Priori ◽  
General Assembly ◽  
Aid Allocation ◽  
Post Cold War ◽  
United Nations General ◽  
The Us ◽  
United Nations General Assembly ◽  
The Cold War

How do political factors affect foreign aid allocation? Recognizing that aid can be used as inducement, we argue that the US has incentives to provide aid to countries who oppose it a priori at the United Nations General Assembly when it is the sole country that “buys votes” with aid, in order to maximize the number of favorable votes. When there is a rival country trying to buy votes, as was the case during the Cold War, there are incentives for the US to provide aid even to those who support its position already. We empirically demonstrate that the US provides more aid to countries who hold unfavorable positions to the US only in the post-Cold War era.

The United States, the United Nations, and the Cold War

1971 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 59-78 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edward T. Rowe
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Cold War ◽  
United Nations ◽  
The United States ◽  
General Assembly ◽  
United Nations General ◽  
Political Relationships ◽  
United Nations General Assembly ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
The Cold War

The nature of political relationships in the United Nations is of considerable interest to students of international organization and, to a lesser degree, to students of international politics. One important aspect of this question concerns the extent to which Western states as a group and the United States in particular dominate the organization. In their examination of this issue many authors contend that the United States prevailed over the United Nations General Assembly during the assembly's earliest years but progressively lost its control as the membership of the organization increased. Their findings, with some variations in detail, indicate that prior to the first significant membership increase in 1955 the United States, with an automatic two-thirds majority in the General Assembly, was dominant. In their view the United States position from 1955 through 1959 was considerably weakened but remained strong enough to ensure favorable decisions by the organization. With further increases in membership during and after 1960, however, they suggest that United States predominance came to an end. Now the newer, less developed, and nonaligned states determine the character and concerns of the UN.

Clashes in the Assembly

2000 ◽  
Vol 54 (2) ◽  
pp. 185-215 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erik Voeten
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Voting Behavior ◽  
The United States ◽  
General Assembly ◽  
Post Cold War ◽  
Substantive Content ◽  
Single Dimension ◽  
United Nations General ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
East West

I apply nominate scaling to analyze a database of Cold War and post–Cold War roll call votes in the United Nations General Assembly. I investigate the dimensionality and stability of global conflict as well as the substantive content of the voting alignments that have replaced the Cold War East-West dimension. I find that post–Cold War conflict in the UN General Assembly is mostly one-dimensional. This single dimension positions countries on a continuum that runs from a group of Western countries at one extreme to a “counterhegemonic” bloc of countries that frequently clashes with the West, and the United States in particular. Levels of democracy and wealth are important independent determinants of the voting behavior of states. The positions of countries along the single dimension are remarkably stable across time, issue area, and issue importance. Except for the Eastern European countries switching sides, they are very similar to the positions on the Cold War East-West dimension. Contrary to expectations, post–Cold War conflict shows little resemblance to Cold War North-South conflict.

The new politics of voting alignments in the United Nations General Assembly

1996 ◽  
Vol 50 (4) ◽  
pp. 629-652 ◽  
Author(s):  
Soo Yeon Kim ◽  
Bruce Russett
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
The United States ◽  
General Assembly ◽  
Post Cold War ◽  
New Politics ◽  
The North ◽  
United Nations General ◽  
Good Set ◽  
The Cold War

Voting patterns in the United National General Assembly provide an exceptionally good set of evidence for observing issues and alignments of states in international politics. We analyze those patterns in three post-cold war sessions of the General Assembly and compare them with the alignments and issues that characterized sessions during the cold war. We find new groups and alignments (with most of Eastern Europe now voting with rather than against West European positions) and a new prominence of long-term North-South issues as they now relate to questions of redefining “human security” in the post-cold war world. The predominant General Assembly division is between richer and poorer nations. Key correlates of voting with the North are wealth, democracy, and proportionately low levels of trade with the United States.

scholarly journals Post-Cold War sanctioning by the EU, the UN, and the US: Introducing the EUSANCT Dataset

2020 ◽  
pp. 073889422094872 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick M Weber ◽  
Gerald Schneider
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
European Union ◽  
Cold War ◽  
United Nations ◽  
The United States ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Post Cold War ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
The Eu

The European Union, the United Nations, and the United States frequently use economic sanctions. This article introduces the EUSANCT Dataset—which amends, merges, and updates some of the most widely used sanctions databases—to trace the evolution of sanctions after the Cold War. The dataset contains case-level and dyadic information on 326 threatened and imposed sanctions by the EU, the UN, and the US. We show that the usage and overall success of sanctions have not grown from 1989 to 2015 and that while the US is the most active sanctioner, the EU and the UN appear more successful.

The shifting salience of democratic governance: Evidence from the United Nations General Assembly General Debates

2016 ◽  
Vol 42 (5) ◽  
pp. 915-938 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catherine Hecht
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
Social Status ◽  
Democratic Governance ◽  
World Politics ◽  
General Assembly ◽  
Group Status ◽  
United Nations General ◽  
United Nations General Assembly ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
The Cold War

AbstractHow has the salience of democratic governance varied as an issue and as a basis of social status in the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) over time? International Relations (IR) scholars typically assume a high salience of democratic governance in international society after the Cold War, yet evidence suggests important fluctuations and that these assumptions should be qualified. This article presents quantitative and qualitative results of a manually-coded content analysis of the UNGA General Debates between 1992 and 2014, with comparison to 1982, illustrating variation in the frequency and content of state representatives’ references to democracy and the use of democratic governance as a symbol of status. What factors influence the salience of a given dimension of social status in an international organisation? Explanations supplement IR approaches with insights from social psychology, including the relevance of high and low identifiers, accessibility, fit, current and anticipated group status, and regional status concerns. The article analyses trends in states’ support for principles underpinning international order, which have broader implications for literature on global governance and status in world politics as well as for international democracy support.

scholarly journals The 60th Anniversary of the Genocide Convention

2008 ◽  
Vol 39 (4) ◽  
pp. 831
Author(s):  
Alberto Costi
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Cold War ◽  
International Criminal Law ◽  
Genocide Convention ◽  
60Th Anniversary ◽  
Post Cold War ◽  
International Crimes ◽  
United Nations General ◽  
United Nations General Assembly ◽  
The Cold War

On 9 December 1948, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Convention for the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. A symbolic response to the atrocities perpetrated by the Nazi regime during World War II, the Convention quickly succumbed to the politics of the Cold War. Its renaissance in the 1990s owes much to the thaw in East-West relations and the emergence of international criminal law and institutions in the aftermath of the events in Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia. As we celebrate the 60th anniversary of this venerable instrument, time is ripe for an assessment of the Convention, in particular the extent to which recent international developments have curbed genocide and other related acts. This article examines the backdrop against which the Convention was adopted, including the reasons explaining why genocide developed as a separate crime. It then looks at the definition that was eventually adopted, including the issues surrounding acts of genocide, protected groups and the requisite intent to prove genocide, and argues that political considerations have shorn the Convention of some important elements. The final part of the paper offers a few general reflections on post-Cold War developments aimed at eradicating genocide and other international crimes.

scholarly journals Democracy and Multilateralism: The Case of Vote Buying in the UN General Assembly

2014 ◽  
Vol 69 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-33 ◽  
Author(s):  
David B. Carter ◽  
Randall W. Stone
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
General Assembly ◽  
Vote Buying ◽  
Post Cold War ◽  
The Us ◽  
Un General Assembly ◽  
Voting Decisions ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Buying In ◽  
Quantities Of Interest

AbstractDemocracies are more supportive of US positions on important votes in the UN General Assembly than of nondemocracies. Is this because democracies share common perspectives, or does this pattern reflect coercion? Since 1985, US law has stipulated that the US State Department identify important votes and that aid disbursements reflect voting decisions. To unravel these alternative explanations, we introduce a strategic statistical model that allows us to estimate voting preferences, vulnerability to influence, and credibility of linkage, which are theoretical quantities of interest that are not directly observable. The results reject the hypothesis of shared democratic values: poor democracies have voting preferences that are more oppositional to US positions than autocracies, and they are more willing than autocracies to take symbolic stands that may cost them foreign aid. Democracies support US positions, however, because US aid linkages are more credible when directed toward democratic countries. Splitting the sample into Cold War and post–Cold War segments, we find that the end of the Cold War changed the way US linkage strategies treated allies and left- and right-leaning governments, but the effects of democracy remained constant.

Land of Blue Helmets

2016 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Arab World ◽  
International Conflicts ◽  
Member States ◽  
Post Cold War ◽  
The Past ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Political Mediation

Born in 1945, the United Nations (UN) came to life in the Arab world. It was there that the UN dealt with early diplomatic challenges that helped shape its institutions such as peacekeeping and political mediation. It was also there that the UN found itself trapped in, and sometimes part of, confounding geopolitical tensions in key international conflicts in the Cold War and post-Cold War periods, such as hostilities between Palestine and Iraq and between Libya and Syria. Much has changed over the past seven decades, but what has not changed is the central role played by the UN. This book's claim is that the UN is a constant site of struggle in the Arab world and equally that the Arab world serves as a location for the UN to define itself against the shifting politics of its age. Looking at the UN from the standpoint of the Arab world, this volume includes chapters on the potential and the problems of a UN that is framed by both the promises of its Charter and the contradictions of its member states.

Peaceful Change in Northeast Asia: Maintaining the “Minimal Peace”

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bhubhindar Singh
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Northeast Asia ◽  
Institutional Structure ◽  
Economic Interdependence ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Post Cold War ◽  
Liberal Internationalism ◽  
The Us ◽  
Regional Order ◽  
The Cold War

Northeast Asia is usually associated with conflict and war. Out of the five regional order transitions from the Sinocentric order to the present post–Cold War period, only one was peaceful, the Cold War to post–Cold War transition. In fact, the peaceful transition led to a state of minimal peace in post–Cold War Northeast Asia. As the chapter discusses, this was due to three realist-liberal factors: America’s hegemonic role, strong economic interdependence, and a stable institutional structure. These factors not only ensured development and prosperity but also mitigated the negative effects of political and strategic tensions between states. However, this minimal peace is in danger of unraveling. Since 2010, the region is arguably in the early stages of another transition fueled by the worsening Sino-US competition. While the organizing ideas of liberal internationalism—economic interdependence and institutional building—will remain resilient, whether or not minimal peace is sustainable will be determined by the outcome of the US-China competition.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document