City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works All Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects 5-2018 (Dis)unity in the UN Security Council: Voting Patterns in the UN's Peace and Security Organ Paul M. Romita The Graduate Center, City University of New York How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! More information about this work at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/2684 Discover additional works at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact: [email protected] (DIS)UNITY IN THE UN SECURITY COUNCIL: VOTING PATTERNS IN THE UN’S PEACE AND SECURITY ORGAN by Paul Romita A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty in Political Science in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, The City University of New York 2018 © 2018 PAUL ROMITA All Rights Reserved ii (Dis)unity in the UN Security Council: Voting Patterns in the UN’s Peace and Security Organ by Paul Romita This manuscript has been read and accepted for the Graduate Faculty in Political Science in satisfaction of the dissertation requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. _________________ ______________________________________ Date Thomas G. Weiss Chair of Examining Committee _________________ ______________________________________ Date Alyson Cole Executive Officer Supervisory Committee: Thomas G. Weiss Bruce Cronin Peter Liberman THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK iii Abstract (Dis)unity in the UN Security Council: Voting Patterns in the UN’s Peace and Security Organ by Paul Romita Advisor: Thomas G. Weiss The conventional wisdom is that the international system in the Cold War was defined by the struggle between East and West. While this was certainly the case, voting patterns in the UN Security Council present a more nuanced picture. Counterintuitively, France, the United Kingdom and the United States—three of the five permanent members of the Security Council (the Permanent 3 or P3) and members of the NATO alliance—voted apart on Council resolutions far more frequently in the Cold War, when they faced the common threat of the Soviet Union, than in the post-Cold War era. This dissertation observes that they were frequently divided on issues related to colonialism and Israel/Palestine, among other matters. It argues that the voting differences among them largely had to do with the way the Council functioned, as negotiating processes were underdeveloped and assertive Council members from the Non-aligned Movement (NAM) often proposed draft resolutions which made bold political statements but had little chance of being adopted. As the Cold War ended, however, the permanent members—the P3, as well as Russia and China—gained a newfound appreciation for the potential of a Security Council unhindered by significant East-West tensions. They sought to consolidate their control of the Council’s work. In part because of the perception expressed by permanent and elected members alike that a unified Council is a more effective one, voting unanimity has been iv achieved on nearly 92 percent of adopted resolutions since 1992. The dissertation further maintains that the NAM has lost its unity and political clout in the post-Cold War, with its members (or for that matter, any other group of members in the Council) less likely to propose draft resolutions destined to be vetoed. At the same time, it posits that the elected members (the Elected 10 or E10), in spite of the differing views among them, at times play a constructive role in the Council’s work, including by building bridges among the permanent members when they are divided. v Acknowledgments I am grateful to the many people who helped me to complete this dissertation. A great debt of gratitude is owed to my advisor, Professor Thomas G. Weiss, whose encouragement and advice were a steady source of support throughout the research and writing process. I have benefitted enormously from his knowledge and patience during the past several years. In addition to Tom, I was fortunate to benefit from the constructive criticisms offered by the other members of my committee, Professor Bruce Cronin and Professor Peter Liberman. Several wonderful colleagues and friends were always ready to listen to me, offer sound advice, and provide encouragement. My colleagues at Security Council Report read drafts of the dissertation and offered constructive advice on numerous issues. My good friend, Martin J. Burke, who earned his PhD in Political Science from the CUNY Graduate Center in 2017 and now lives on the West Coast, was always very patient with phone calls from his New York friend to discuss the challenges of research and writing. Martin’s insights and good humor always lifted my mood and kept me motivated. I am most thankful to my family, who never waver in their love and support. My son Misha, who gives meaning to everything I do, always understood when Daddy had to do his “school work.” vi Contents Introduction………………………………………………………………………………………..1 I. An evolving institution…………………………………………………………………..22 II. Statistic on Security Council resolutions and vetoes…………………………………….46 III. A rising developing world in the Council………………………………………………..60 IV. The Council in the post-Cold War era: the ‘Brahmins’ consolidate their control……...118 V. The elected members and efforts to build consensus…………………………………...170 VI. Whither the Council? …………………………………………………………………..208 Appendix……………………………………………………………………………………......226 Bibliography……………………………………………………………………………………227 vii List of Abbreviations E10 Elected Ten (the ten elected members of the UN Security Council) EU European Union ICC International Criminal Court ICJ International Court of Justice ICRC International Committee of the Red Cross MSF Médecins Sans Frontières MINUGUA UN Mission for the Verification of Human Rights and of Compliance with the Comprehensive Agreement of Human Rights in Guatemala MINURSO UN Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara NAM Non-Aligned Movement NATO North Atlantic Treaty Organization OHCHR Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights ONUC UN Operation in the Congo P3 Permanent Three (France, the United States and the United Kingdom) P5 Permanent Five (China, France, Russia, the United States and the United Kingdom RPF Regional Protection Force SCAD Security Council Affairs Division UDI Universal Declaration of Independence UNAMID UN/AU Hybrid Operation in Darfur UNAMIR UN Assistance Mission in Rwanda UNEF UN Emergency Force viii UNESCO UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization UNMIL UN Mission in Liberia UNMISS UN Mission in South Sudan UNFICYP UN Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus UNFPA UN Population Fund UNPREDEP UN Preventive Deployment Force in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia UNSCOM UN Special Commission WEOG Western Europe and Others Group ix List of Tables Table 1: Use of the Veto………………………………………………………………………....54 Table 2: Growth in UN Membership and NAM Representation in the UN (1945-1985) ………79 Table 2.1: Growth in UN Membership and NAM Representation in the UN (consolidated)…...80 Table 3: Security Council Members which were part of the NAM………………………….......81 Table 4: Security Council Penholders – 2017……………………………………………..........132 Table 5: P3 Voting Divergences on Adopted Resolutions………………………………..........155 Table 6: P3 Voting Divergences on Drafts that Did Not Receive the Required Number of Votes for Adoption…………………………………………………………………………….156 Table 7: US Vetoes (1992-2016) …………………………………………………………........156 x Introduction The popular conception of the Cold War period is that the world was divided into two ideological camps, with the foreign policies of states closely aligned with either superpower. Some scholars also argued that with the end of the Cold War, the Western alliance would fall apart, as the Soviet threat no longer bound them together.1 However, voting patterns in the UN Security Council, the international organ entrusted with the primary responsibility for maintaining international peace and security, demonstrate that the opposite has occurred. France, the United Kingdom, and the United States—the three most powerful members of the NATO alliance—have voted together with greater frequency in the post-Cold War era than during the Cold War era. One might have expected that the former Soviet Union (Russia) and the United States would vote together a higher percentage of the time after the end of the Cold War. But the fact that these three countries (known as the “Permanent 3” or the “P3” in the Council) have voted together a high percentage of time in the post-Cold War years, without the threat of the Soviet Union to bind them together, would seem counter-intuitive. The evidence of P3 voting divergence in the Security Council in the Cold War, followed by P3 voting convergence in the post-Cold War era, is striking. Through the end of 1991, they did not vote together as a bloc on approximately one of every six resolutions (slightly under 17 percent of the time), whereas they have voted apart on only one of roughly every fifty resolutions (approximately 2 percent of the time) between 1992 and 2016.2 1 See, for example, John J. Mearsheimer, “Why We Will Soon Miss the Cold War,” The Atlantic 266, no. 2 (1990): 35-50; and Kenneth N. Waltz, “The Emerging Structure of International Politics,” International Security 18, no. 2 (1993): 75-76. 2 These figures relate to resolutions that were adopted or vetoed. They do not include the handful of resolutions that failed to be adopted because of insufficient votes, which are difficult to track. Furthermore, while there were 725 resolutions adopted in the Cold War, 11 of these were omitted from the analysis because the voting record was 1 Determining why this change in P3 voting patterns has occurred raises several interesting questions. Some of these are relevant to the evolution of P3 policy positions, but there is also much to be said about changes in how the Council has functioned as an institution, how the perceptions of this organ among its members (permanent and elected alike) has changed, and how its working methods have evolved during the history of the United Nations.