The Politics of Legitimation in International Organizations

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Binder ◽  
Monika Heupel
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Linear Regression ◽  
International Organizations ◽  
The United States ◽  
General Assembly ◽  
Member States ◽  
Original Dataset ◽  
Un Security Council ◽  
Public Debates ◽  
Un General Assembly

Abstract To govern effectively, international organizations (IOs) crucially depend on legitimation and support from their member states. But which states claim legitimacy for IOs, which challenge their legitimacy, and why? We address this gap in the literature by analyzing the legitimation strategies that states use in institutionalized discursive spaces within IOs. Specifically, we examine how United Nations (UN) member states seek to legitimate or delegitimate the UN Security Council in public debates in the UN General Assembly. We formulate a set of hypotheses that link specific state characteristics to evaluative statements on the Council’s legitimacy. We test these hypotheses on an original dataset using a non-linear regression model. In line with our theoretical expectations, we find that legitimation strategies are driven by a state’s membership of the Council and by its attitudes towards the United States. Contrary to our theoretical expectations, economically powerful states and states that are willing to delegate authority to supranational organizations are more likely to challenge the Council’s legitimacy. Furthermore, we provide evidence that states’ legitimacy claims resonate among fellow states, that is, among the Council’s primary audience. More generally, our findings suggest that making public claims about the Security Council’s legitimacy is not an empty diplomatic exercise, and that states do not make these claims at random. Legitimation strategies follow discernible patterns that can be explained by specific state characteristics.

scholarly journals The Events of 1956 in Hungary and the UN Position

2017 ◽  
pp. 486-498
Author(s):  
Ihor Likhtej ◽  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Great Britain ◽  
International Relations ◽  
The United States ◽  
General Assembly ◽  
Official Position ◽  
Hungarian Revolution ◽  
Un Security Council ◽  
Un General Assembly ◽  
Great Merit

This article covers the influence of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution on international relations, in particular on the official position of the United States, Great Britain and France. It analyses the process of discussing “the Hungarian question” at the UN Security Council and at the emergency General Assembly session. The author emphasizes the significance of the activities of the special commission for investigating events in Hungary established by the UN General Assembly in autumn 1956, as well as the great merit of the Danish diplomat Bang Jensen in investigating and formulating the text of commission’s report, which covered the struggle of the Hungarian people for freedom.

scholarly journals Titans Jousting for the Mob: Great Powers and Voting in the UN General Assembly

2018 ◽  
pp. 7-18
Author(s):  
I. Istomin
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
National Policy ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
The United States ◽  
Political Elite ◽  
General Assembly ◽  
Major Power ◽  
Member States ◽  
Major Powers ◽  
Un General Assembly

The article aims to assess current trends in the evolution of Russian, Chinese and American standing in the UN General Assembly (UNGA). This body as the most representative international body with wide thematical mandate enables to assess correlation in voting patterns of major powers and other participants of international community. Therefore, commonality of positions could be used as an indicator of positive recognition of national policy by UN Member-States. Such recognition could become a source of international legitimation for a strategy of a major power in global politics. The article starts with representing the key trend towards greater rivalry among major powers since the early 2010s. It claims that this competition to a large extent is exercised in institutionalized forums. It then examines an institutional mandate and operational dynamics of UNGA. After that it engages in descriptive statistical analysis of voting record in this body from its 60th to 71st sessions.The study demonstrates the rise of unfavorable trends for Russia and China in UNGA. Their positions receive lower levels of overall support from the whole population of UN Member-States. The same trends could be observed within BRICS and among their respective regional partners. The United States, on the contrary, improved their positions in the UNGA throughout the 2010s. This task was simplified by an extremely low base level of correlation in voting between Washington and other states. The administration of Barack Obama was especially successful in consolidation of major developed countries around the United States. However, due to the widespread skepticism towards the UN in the American political elite, there are no guarantees that the United States will be able to preserve increased level of convergence of political positions with other states in future.

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.

The UN Statehood Bid

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Noura Erakat
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Peace Process ◽  
The United States ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
General Assembly ◽  
Palestinian Authority ◽  
Palestine Liberation Organization ◽  
The Us ◽  
The World ◽  
Un General Assembly

This chapter focuses on the United Nations's Palestinian “statehood” bid starting in 2011. In May 2011, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO)/Palestinian Authority (PA) announced that it would seek membership as a state within the UN. The UN statehood bid would alter the PLO's status as a nonmember observer entity, conferred upon it by the UN General Assembly in 1974. While the benefits of UN membership, or in the alternative, a UN upgrade, are manifold, none of them guarantee Palestinian self-determination or freedom from Israeli control. The chapter suggests that this statehood bid could have been a pivot away from complete reliance on the United States to deliver independence and a return to multilateralism that positioned the world superpower as part of the problem rather than the solution. However, the promise of multilateralism, signaled by Palestinians in 2011, has not been realized. The Palestinian leadership has responded to the ever-diminishing potential of the US-brokered peace process with incremental steps into international forums.

The United Nations Secretariat—Some Constitutional and Administrative Developments

1955 ◽  
Vol 49 (3) ◽  
pp. 295-319 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maxwell Cohen
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
United Nations ◽  
International Organizations ◽  
The United States ◽  
Secretary General ◽  
General Assembly ◽  
Employment Policies ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
Administrative Tribunal

The personnel difficulties of the United Nations Secretariat, so much dramatized since 1952, have served to focus exceptional attention on the Secretary General and his employment policies, as well as on the constitutional position of the Secretariat, its staff and their relations to the General Assembly and to the Administrative Tribunal. Indeed a substantial literature examining these issues —issues arising, in part, out of the United States’ allegations of “subversive” personnel in the Secretariat—now must be added to the already imposing structure of scholarship dealing with international organizations and officials since their beginnings in the League system and into the United Nations period.

scholarly journals The Sudanese Women’s Advocacy Mission to New York and Washington DC

1970 ◽  
pp. 72-75
Author(s):  
Marie-Christine Aquarone
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
New York ◽  
Active Role ◽  
The United States ◽  
Peace Movement ◽  
General Assembly ◽  
Washington Dc ◽  
Peace Negotiations ◽  
The World ◽  
Un General Assembly

In June 2000, eight women from the war-torn country of Sudan traveled to the United States to present their message to the world. They wished to say that they were tired of the 45-year-old Sudanese civil war and they wanted to announce that they had formed a peace movement and were calling for an active role in the peace negotiations, to help end the war. Their discussions with United Nationsofficials and high-ranking officers of agencies and nongovernmental organizations coincided with the Beijing +5 conference, a conference on women’s rights convened by the UN General Assembly that was attended by more than 10,000 female delegates from 180 countries.

Why U.S. Recognition of Jerusalem Could Be Contrary to International Law

2018 ◽  
Vol 47 (3) ◽  
pp. 72-92 ◽  
Author(s):  
Victor Kattan
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
International Law ◽  
The United States ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Legal Standing ◽  
Un Security Council ◽  
Arab League ◽  
Un General Assembly ◽  
The City ◽  
The U.S

President Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and to move the U.S. embassy to the city has been universally condemned, as it is contrary to a well-established rule of international law stipulating that states must not recognize the fruits of conquest. While the United States chose to exercise its right of veto in the UN Security Council to block a resolution criticizing the presidential decision, the remaining members of the council, including close U.S. allies, criticized it. Similarly, the UN General Assembly, the European Union, the Arab League, and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation have all passed strongly worded resolutions saying that they would not recognize any changes to the pre-1967 borders, including in and around Jerusalem. This paper examines the legal standing of the U.S. decision in light of previous positions that the United States has historically adopted or endorsed.

The international debate on Puerto Rico: the costs of being an agenda-taker

1984 ◽  
Vol 38 (3) ◽  
pp. 575-595 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Pastor
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Puerto Rico ◽  
Puerto Rican ◽  
International Organizations ◽  
The United States ◽  
Colonial Power ◽  
International Debate ◽  
Agenda Setter ◽  
Un General Assembly ◽  
The Cost

The United States insists that the issue of Puerto Rico was removed from the international agenda by a vote of the UN General Assembly in 1953. This insistence has not quieted the international debate. During the last decade, more nations have used more international organizations to pursue the decolonization of Puerto Rico. They have been assisted by moderate Puerto Rican leaders who are looking for a way to induce the United States to change the island's status. As an agenda-taker, the U.S. government has had to expend increasing amounts of energy, prestige, and resources—mostly diplomatic, but occasionally economic and political—each year to try to keep from being condemned as a colonial power. Agenda-setters, particularly Cuba, pay a small price but derive substantial benefits from raising the cost to the United States or increasing the number of turnstiles (actions in other international forums) through which the United States must pass each year. Other countries, whose UN vote is transformed by U.S. concern into hard currency, owe the agenda-setter a debt. Five specific changes in strategy could reduce the costs to the United States of being an agenda-taker in the United Nations

scholarly journals The Arafat Visa Affair: Exceeding The Bounds of Host State Discretion

1989 ◽  
Vol 83 (3) ◽  
pp. 519-527 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. Michael Reisman
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
New York ◽  
International Law ◽  
Annual Meeting ◽  
International Organizations ◽  
The United States ◽  
General Assembly ◽  
Palestine Liberation Organization ◽  
Host State ◽  
The U.S

Pacta sunt servandaThe U.S. refusal to permit Yasir Arafat, Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization, to attend the 43d annual meeting of the General Assembly in New York was almost universally condemned as a violation of international law. Because Arafat publicly complied, on December 14, 1988, with the conditions the United States had long prescribed as prerequisite for direct contacts with the PLO, many have tended retroactively to validate the refusal to grant the visa, as a pragmatic and legitimate technique of diplomatic suasion. Consequently, it is all the more urgent that the record of international legal violation be confirmed, lest the refusal be cited, in the idiosyncratic fashion of international law, as precedent for future violations. Such a development would hasten the deterioration of the regime of restraints on the discretion of host states and reduce the effectiveness of resident international organizations.

The United States and the Genocide Convention: Leading Advocate and Leading Obstacle

1997 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
pp. 271-290
Author(s):  
William Korey
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Public Support ◽  
The United States ◽  
General Assembly ◽  
Genocide Convention ◽  
Human Rights Abuses ◽  
The Public ◽  
Un General Assembly ◽  
Bar Association

While the United States is now an international leader in the fight against genocide and human rights abuses, it only recently ratified the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide– forty years after the convention's unanimous adoption by the UN General Assembly. Korey provides a description of the long struggle for ratification of the Genocide Convention, detailing decades of work by a committee of fifty-two nongovernmental organizations lobbying the Senate and the American Bar Association, the treaty's key opponent. Despite the public support for the United Nations and human rights by the United States, failure to ratify the Genocide Convention stemmed primarily from the fear that international covenants were threats to U.S. sovereignty. The United States finally overcame this fear with the ratification of the Genocide Convention in 1988, which opened the door for U.S. leadership.

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