One voice or different choice? Vote defection of European Union member states in the United Nations General Assembly

Abstract

Existing research suggests that European Union member states are increasingly able to act in concert in the United Nations General Assembly. Based on several hundred co-ordination meetings per year, the European Union ‘speaks with one voice’ on most of the resolutions voted upon in the United Nations General Assembly. However, little is known about instances where the European Union member states do not vote coherently. Three questions remain unanswered. First, what factors determine deviating voting behaviour of European Union member states? Second, who are the most frequent defectors from the European Union’s majority position? Third, which voting blocs within the European Union can be identified? The article answers these questions in a quantitative design by controlling for domestic factors, issues of resolutions and the position of the United States. The results suggest that domestic factors determine deviating voting behaviour far less than agenda-related issues and the position of the United States.

Keywords

Common Foreign and Security Policy European Union United Nations General Assembly voting behaviour

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Bailey

Strezhnev

Voeten

(2017) Estimating dynamic state preferences from United Nations voting data. Journal of Conflict Resolution 61(2): 430–456.

Beach

(2012) Analyzing Foreign Policy. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Bearce

Bondanella

(2007) Intergovernmental organizations, socialization, and member state interest convergence. International Organization 61(4): 703–733.

Birnberg

(2009) The Voting Behaviour of the European Union Member States in the United Nations General Assembly. London: London School of Economics and Political Science.

Blavoukos

Bourantonis

Galariotis

et al . (2016) The European Union’s visibility and coherence at the United Nations General Assembly. Global Affairs 2(1): 35–45.

Bretherton

Vogler

(2006) The European Union as a Global Actor. Milton Park: Routledge.

Bull

(1982) Civilian power Europe: A contradiction in terms? Journal of Common Market Studies 21(2): 149–170.

Burmester

Jankowski

(2014) Reassessing the European Union in the United Nations General Assembly. Journal of European Public Policy 21(10): 1491–1508.

Carter

Stone

(2015) Democracy and multilateralism: The case of vote buying in the UN General Assembly. International Organization 69(1): 1–33.

10.

Checkel

(2005) International institutions and socialization in Europe: Introduction and framework. International Organization 59(4): 801–826.

11.

Döring

Manow

(2012) Parliament and government composition database (ParlGov): An infrastructure for empirical information on parties, elections and governments in modern democracies. Available at: http://www.parlgov.org/data/table/view_party/

12.

Dreher

Nunnenkamp

Thiele

(2008) Does US aid buy UN General Assembly votes? A disaggregated analysis. Public Choice 136(1–2): 139–164.

13.

Dreher

Sturm

Vreeland

(2009) Development aid and international politics: Does membership on the UN Security Council influence World Bank decisions? Journal of Development Economics 88(1): 1–18.

14.

Drieskens

(2012) Measuring regional actorness at the UN Security Council: The EU as a paragon of complexity. In: De Lombaerde

Baert

Felício

(eds) The United Nations and the Regions: Third World Report on Regional Integration. New York: Springer, pp. 59–70.

15.

Drieskens

Van Genderen

Reykers

(2014) From indications to indicators: Measuring regional leadership in the UN context. Journal of Policy Modeling 36(1): 151–171.

16.

European Union Delegation to the United Nations (2016) About the EU at the UN in New York. Available at: http://eu-un.europa.eu/about-the-eu-at-the-un/ (accessed 20 March 2018)

17.

Ferdinand

(2014a) Foreign policy convergence in Pacific Asia: The evidence from voting in the UN General Assembly. British Journal of Politics & International Relations 16(4): 662–679.

18.

Ferdinand

(2014b) Rising powers at the UN: An analysis of the voting behaviour of brics in the General Assembly. Third World Quarterly 35(3): 376–391.

19.

Hill

(1993) The capability-expectations gap, or conceptualizing Europe’s international role. Journal of Common Market Studies 31(3): 305–328.

20.

Hill

(1997) Paradoxes of European foreign policy: Convergence, divergence & dialectics: National foreign policies & the CFSP. EUI Working Papers 97/66. European University Institute, Florence.

21.

Hix

Noury

Roland

(2007) Democratic Politics in the European Parliament. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

22.

Hooijmaaijers

Keukeleire

(2016) Voting cohesion of the BRICS countries in the UN General Assembly, 2006−2014: A BRICS too far? Global Governance 22(3): 389–407.

23.

Hosli

van Kampen

Meijerink

et al . (2010) Voting cohesion in the United Nations General Assembly: The case of the European Union. Paper presented at the ECPR Fifth Pan-European Conference, Porto, 24–26 June.

24.

Huntington

(1999) The lonely superpower. Foreign Affairs 78(2): 35–49.

25.

Hwang

Sanford

Lee

(2015) Does membership on the UN Security Council influence voting in the UN General Assembly? International Interactions 41(2): 256–278.

26.

Jakobsson

(2009) An international actor under pressure: The impact of the war on terror and the fifth enlargement on EU voting cohesion at the UN General Assembly 2000–05. Journal of Common Market Studies 47(3): 531–554.

27.

Jin

Hosli

(2013) Pre- and post-Lisbon: European Union voting in the United Nations General Assembly. West European Politics 36(6): 1274–1291.

28.

Johnston

(2001) Treating international institutions as social environments. International Studies Quarterly 45(4): 487–515.

29.

Jupille

Caporaso

(1998) States, agency, and rules: The European Union in global environmental politics. In: Rhodes

(ed.) The European Union in the World Community. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, pp. 213–230.

30.

Keukeleire

Delreux

(2014) The Foreign Policy of the European Union. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

31.

Laatikainen

(2017) Conceptualizing groups in UN multilateralism: The diplomatic practice of group politics. The Hague Journal of Diplomacy 12(2–3): 113–137.

32.

Lijphart

(1963) The analysis of bloc voting in the General Assembly: A critique and a proposal. American Political Science Review 97(4): 902–917.

33.

Luif

(2003) EU cohesion in the UN General Assembly. Occasional Papers 49, European Union Institute for Security Studies, Paris, 1 December.

34.

Maes

(1979) The European community and the United Nations General Assembly. Journal of European Integration 3(1): 73–83.

35.

Manners

(2002) Normative power Europe: A contradiction in terms? Journal of Common Market Studies 40(2): 235–258.

36.

Manners

(2006) Normative power Europe reconsidered: Beyond the crossroads. Journal of European Public Policy 13(2): 182–199.

37.

Moravcsik

(1997) Taking preferences seriously: A liberal theory of international politics. International Organization 51(4): 513–553.

38.

NATO North Atlantic Council (2016) United States non-paper: ‘Defense impacts of potential United Nations General Assembly Nuclear Weapons Ban Treaty’: Note by the Secretary. AC/333-N(2016)0029 (INV). Committee on Proliferation (CP). Available at: http://www.icanw.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/NATO_OCT2016.pdf (accessed 20 March 2018).

39.

Panke

(2013) Regional power revisited: How to explain differences in coherency and success of regional organizations in the United Nations General Assembly. International Negotiation 18(2): 265–291.

40.

Panke

Lang

Wiedemann

(2017) State and regional actors in complex governance systems. British Journal of Politics & International Relations 19(1): 91–112.

41.

Paterson

(2011) The reluctant hegemon? Germany moves centre stage in the European Union. Journal of Common Market Studies 49(s1): 57–75.

42.

Potrafke

(2009) Does government ideology influence political alignment with the U.S.? An empirical analysis of voting in the UN General Assembly. Review of International Organizations 4(3): 245–268.

43.

Putnam

(1988) Diplomacy and domestic politics: The logic of two-level games. International Organization 42(3): 427–460.

44.

Rasch

(2008) The European Union at the United Nations: The Functioning and Coherence of EU External Representation in a State-centric Environment. Leiden: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers.

45.

Sieberer

(2010) Behavioral consequences of mixed electoral systems: Deviating voting behavior of district and list MPs in the German Bundestag. Electoral Studies 29(3): 484–496.

46.

Sjursen

(2006) What kind of power? Journal of European Public Policy 13(2): 169–181.

47.

Smith

(2006) Speaking with one voice? European Union co-ordination on human rights issues at the United Nations. Journal of Common Market Studies 44(1): 113–137.

48.

Smith

(2008) European Union Foreign Policy in a Changing World. Cambridge: Polity Press.

49.

Stavridis

Pruett

(1996) EPC at the UN (European Political Cooperation at the United Nations): A Critical Assessment of the Voting Behaviour of European States at the UN’s General Assembly between 1970 and 1992. Reading: Department of Politics, University of Reading.

50.

Stokman

(1977) Roll Calls and Sponsorship: A Methodological Analysis of Third World Group Formation in the United Nations. Leiden: Albertus Willem Sijthoff.

51.

Strezhnev

Voeten

(2013) United Nations General Assembly voting data. Available at: http://hdl.handle.net/1902.1/12379 (accessed 20 March 2018)

52.

Strömvik

(1998) Fifteen votes and one voice? The CFSP and changing voting alignments in the UN. Statsvetenskaplig Tidskrift 101(2): 181–197.

53.

Thomas

(2011) Explaining EU foreign policy: Normative institutionalism and alternative approaches. In: Thomas

(ed.) Making EU Foreign Policy: National Preferences, European Norms and Common Policies. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 10–28.

54.

U.S. Delegation to United Nations (2007) UNGA 62: Dealing with Western Europe. WikiLeaks cable: 07USUNNEWYORK1218_a. Available at: https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/07USUNNEWYORK1218_a.html (accessed 13 February 2017).

55.

U.S. Delegation to United Nations (2008) UNGA 63: Dealing with Western Europe. WikiLeaks cable: 08USUNNEWYORK1198_a. Available at: https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/08USUNNEWYORK1198_a.html (accessed 13 February 2017)

56.

U.S. Delegation to United Nations (2009) UNGA 64: EU and EFTA member states welcome and support new U.S. priorities: Report prepared by area advisor for Western Europe Robert Smolik. WikiLeaks cable: 09USUNNEWYORK1141_a. Available at: https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/09USUNNEWYORK1141_a.html (accessed 13 February 2017).

57.

U.S. Department of State (2014) Voting practices in the United Nations 2013: Report to Congress submitted pursuant to Public Laws 101–246 and 108–447. Available at: http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/225048.pdf (accessed 13 February 2017).

58.

Voeten

(2000) Clashes in the assembly. International Organization 54(2): 185–215.

59.

Voeten

(2004) Resisting the lonely superpower: Responses of states in the United Nations to U.S. dominance. Journal of Politics 66(3): 729–754.

60.

Voeten

(2013) Data and analyses of voting in the United Nations General Assembly. In: Reinalda

(ed.) Routledge Handbook of International Organization. London: Routledge, pp. 54–66.

61.

Wikileaks (2017) Only Palau & Israel vote w/US in UN (email from Jeffrey Farrow). WikiLeaks Hillary Clinton Email Archive (email id 13783). Available at: https://wikileaks.org/clinton-emails/emailid/13783 (accessed 13 February 2017).

62.

Young

Rees

(2005) EU voting behaviour in the UN General Assembly, 1990–2002: The EU’s Europeanising tendencies. Irish Studies in International Affairs 16: 193–207.

63.

Zürn

Checkel

(2005) Getting socialized to build bridges: Constructivism and rationalism, Europe and the nation-state. International Organization 59(4): 1045–1079.