Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7fkt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-23T21:53:17.877Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Informal Groups of States and the UN Security Council

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 August 2005

Jochen Prantl
Jochen Prantl
Affiliation:
Department of Politics and International Relations, Nuffield College, University of Oxford, England, [email protected]
Get access

Abstract

This article discusses the dynamics between informal groups of states and the UN Security Council. First, I argue that informal groups have proliferated in response to systemic change. Second, these groups serve as a mechanism that allows for exit from structural constraints of the Security Council and voice for stakeholders in a conflict. In effect, they may narrow the operational and participatory gap growing out of the multiple incapacities that prevents the Council from formulating an effective response to crisis situations. Third, the processes of diplomatic problem solving and its collective legitimation have become increasingly decoupled. The former tends to be delegated to informal groups or coalition of states, while the Council provides the latter. I illustrate how these findings affect one's understanding of power, legitimacy, and change in the theory of international relations.This article is the extensively revised version of a paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Academic Council on the United Nations System in 2003. The project received financial support from the Economic and Social Research Council, United Kingdom (Grant No. R42200024335), and the Centre for International Studies, University of Oxford. The UN Studies Program at Yale University was a frequent host and home over recent years. I would like to express my gratitude for the long-term support and advice of Karl Kaiser, Bruce Russett, James Sutterlin, and especially Neil MacFarlane. I also wish to thank Mats Berdal, Richard Caplan, Sam Daws, Kurt Gaubatz, Marrack Goulding, Jean Krasno, Edward Luck, David Malone, Lisa Martin, James Mayall, Joseph Nye, Adam Roberts, Avi Shlaim, Ngaire Woods, and two anonymous referees for comments and criticism.

Type
Research Article
Information
International Organization , Volume 59 , Issue 3 , July 2005 , pp. 559 - 592
Copyright
© 2005 The IO Foundation and Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Abbott, Kenneth W., and Duncan Snidal. 1998. Why States Act Through Formal International Organizations. Journal of Conflict Resolution 42 (1):3–32.Google Scholar
Albright, Madeleine. 2003. Madam Secretary: A Memoir. New York: Miramax.
Bailey, Sydney, and Sam Daws. 1998. The Procedure of the UN Security Council. 3rd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Barnett, Michael, and Martha Finnemore. 1999. The Politics, Power, and Pathologies of International Organizations. International Organization 53 (4):699–732.Google Scholar
Barnett, Michael, and Martha Finnemore. 2004. Rules for the World: International Organizations in Global Politics. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press.
Berdal, Mats. 2003. The UN Security Council: Ineffective but Indispensable. Survival 45 (2):7–30.Google Scholar
Brenke, Gabriele. 1989. Die Bundesrepublik Deutschland und der Namibia-Konflikt. Munich, Germany: Oldenbourg.
Caron, David D. 1993. The Legitimacy of the Collective Authority of the Security Council. American Journal of International Law 87 (4):552–88.Google Scholar
Clark, Ian. 2005. Legitimacy in International Society. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Claude, Inis L. 1966. Collective Legitimization as a Political Function of the United Nations. International Organization 20 (3):367–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Collier, Paul, Lani Elliott, Håvard Hegre, Anke Hoeffler, Marta Reynal-Querol, and Nicholas Sambanis. 2003. Breaking the Conflict Trap: Civil War and Development Policy. Washington, D.C.: World Bank.
Cordier, Andrew W., and Wilder Foote. 1974. Public Papers of the Secretaries-General of the United Nations, Vol. IV. Dag Hammarskjöld, 1958–1960. New York: Columbia University Press.
Cox, Robert W., and Harold K. Jacobson. 1973. The Framework for Inquiry. In The Anatomy of Influence: Decision-Making in International Organization, edited by Robert W. Cox and Harold K. Jacobson, 1–36. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press.
Crocker, Chester A. 1999. Peacemaking in Southern Africa: The Namibia-Angola Settlement of 1988. In Herding Cats: Multiparty Mediation in a Complex World, edited by Chester A. Crocker, Fen Osler Hampson, and Pamela Aall, 207–44. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Institute of Peace Press.
Daalder, Ivo H., and Michael E. O'Hanlon. 2000. Winning Ugly: NATO's War to Save Kosovo. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press.
Dahl, Robert A. 1957. The Concept of Power. Behavioral Science 2 (3):201–15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dahl, Robert A. 1989. Democracy and Its Critics. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press.
De Soto, Alvaro. 1999. Ending Violent Conflict in El Salvador. In Herding Cats: Multiparty Mediation in a Complex World, edited by Chester Crocker, Fen Osler Hampson, and Pamela Aall, 345–85. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Institute of Peace Press.
Doyle, Michael. 2001. War Making and Peace Making: The United Nations' Post–Cold War Record. In Turbulent Peace: The Challenges of Managing International Conflict, edited by Chester A. Crocker, Fen Osler Hampson, and Pamela Aall, 529–60. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Institute of Peace Press.
Feuerle, Loie. 1985. Informal Consultation: A Mechanism in Security Council Decision-Making. New York University Journal of International Law and Politics 18 (1):267–308.Google Scholar
Franck, Thomas M. 1990. The Power of Legitimacy Among Nations. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Freudenschuß, Helmut. 1993. Article 39 of the UN Charter Revisited: Threats to Peace and Recent Practice of the UN Security Council. Austrian Journal of International Law 46 (1):1–39.Google Scholar
Gallarotti, Guilio M. 1991. The Limits of International Organization: Systematic Failure in the Management of International Relations. International Organization 45 (2):183–220.Google Scholar
Glennon, Michael J. 2003. Why the Security Council Failed. Foreign Affairs 82 (3):16–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Global Policy Forum. 2004. Size of Permanent Missions—Number of Professionals on Staff, 1994–2004. Available from 〈http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/data/tabsec.htm〉. Accessed 10 March 2005.
Hawkins, Darren, David A. Lake, Daniel Nielson, and Michael J. Tierney. 2003. Delegation Under Anarchy: States, International Organizations, and Principal-Agent Theory. Working Paper. Program on International Organization & Change. Available at 〈http://www.internationalorganizations.org/Delegation_Under_Anarchyv_8.26.pdf〉. Accessed 10 March 2005.
Hirschman, Albert O. 1970. Exit, Voice, and Loyalty: Responses to Decline in Firms, Organizations, and States. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
Hiscocks, Richard. 1973. The Security Council: A Study in Adolescence. London: Longman.
Hume, Cameron R. 1994. The United Nations, Iran, and Iraq: How Peacemaking Changed. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Hurd, Ian. 1997. Security Council Reform: Informal Membership and Practice. In The Once and Future Security Council, edited by Bruce Russett, 135–52. New York: St. Martin's Press.
Hurd, Ian. 1999. Legitimacy and Authority in International Politics. International Organization 53 (2):379–408.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hurd, Ian. 2002. Legitimacy, Power, and the Symbolic Life of the UN Security Council. Global Governance 8 (1):35–51.Google Scholar
Hurrell, Andrew. 2005. Power, Institutions, and the Production of Inequality. In Power in Global Governance, edited by Michael Barnett and Raymond Duvall, 33–58. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Ikenberry, G. John. 2002. Multilateralism and U.S. Grand Strategy. In Multilateralism and US Foreign Policy: Ambivalent Engagement, edited by Stewart Patrick and Shepard Forman, 121–40. London: Lynne Rienner.
Ikenberry, G. John. 2003. State Power and the Institutional Bargain: America's Ambivalent Economic and Security Multilateralism. In US Hegemony and International Organizations: The United States and Multilateral Institutions, edited by Rosemary Foot, S. Neil MacFarlane, and Michael Mastanduno, 49–70. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Jabri, Vivienne. 1990. Mediating Conflict: Decision-Making and Western Intervention in Namibia. Manchester, England: Manchester University Press.
Joetze, Günther. 2001. Der letzte Krieg in Europa? Das Kosovo und die deutsche Politik. Munich, Germany: DVA.
Johnstone, Ian. 1995. Rights and Reconciliation: UN Strategies in El Salvador. Boulder, Colo.: Lynne Rienner.
Jones, Bruce D. 2001. The Challenges of Strategic Coordination: Containing Opposition and Sustaining Implementation of Peace Agreements in Civil Wars. IPA Policy Paper Series on Peace Implementation, June 2001. New York: International Peace Academy.
Jones, Bruce D. 2002. The Challenges of Strategic Coordination. In Ending Civil Wars: The Implementation of Peace Agreements, edited by Stephen John Stedman, Donald Rothchild, and Elizabeth M. Cousens, 89–115. Boulder, Colo.: Lynne Rienner.
Juhn, Tricia. 1998. Negotiating Peace in El Salvador: Civil-Military Relations and the Conspiracy to End the War. London: Macmillan.
Kahler, Miles. 1992. Multilateralism with Small and Large Numbers. International Organization 46 (3):681–708.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Karl, Terry Lynn. 1992. El Salvador's Negotiated Revolution. Foreign Affairs 71 (2):147–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Karns, Margaret P. 1987. Ad Hoc Multilateral Diplomacy: The United States, the Contact Group, and Namibia. International Organization 41 (1):93–123.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Keohane, Robert O. 1984. After Hegemony: Cooperation and Discord in the World Political Economy. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.
Keohane, Robert O., and Joseph S. Nye. 2000. Introduction. In Governance in a Globalizing World, edited by Joseph S. Nye and John D. Donahue, 1–41. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press.
Keohane, Robert O., and Lisa L. Martin. 2003. Institutional Theory as a Research Program. In Progress in International Relations Theory: Appraising the Field, edited by Colin Elman and Miriam Fendius Elman, 71–107. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.
Kissinger, Henry A. 1957. A World Restored—Metternich, Castlereagh and the Problems of Peace, 1812–22. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
Koremenos, Barbara, Charles Lipson, and Duncan Snidal, eds. 2004. The Rational Design of International Institutions. Cambridge, Mass.: Cambridge University Press.
Lake, David A., and Mathew D. McCubbins. 2004. Delegation to International Agencies. Working Paper. University of California, San Diego. Available from 〈http://weber.ucsd.edu/∼dlake/Working%20Papers/mclake-delegation%20Draft%202.1.pdf〉. Accessed 8 April 2005.
Lippmann, Walter. 1922. Public Opinion. New York: Simon & Schuster.
Luck, Edward. 2002. The United States, International Organization, and the Quest for Legitimacy. In Multilateralism and US Foreign Policy: Ambivalent Engagement, edited by Stewart Patrick and Shepard Forman, 47–74. London: Lynne Rienner.
Malone, David M. 2000. Eyes on the Prize: The Quest for Nonpermanent Seats on the UN Security Council. Global Governance 6 (1):3–23.Google Scholar
Malone, David M. 2004. Introduction. In The UN Security Council: From the Cold War to the 21st Century, edited by David M. Malone, 1–15. Boulder, Colo.: Lynne Rienner.
McCarthy, Patrick A. 1997. Positionality, Tension, and Instability in the UN Security Council. Global Governance 3 (2):147–69.Google Scholar
McCarthy, Patrick A. 1998. Hierarchy and Flexibility in World Politics: Adaptation to Shifting Power Distributions in the United Nations Security Council and the International Monetary Fund. Aldershot: Ashgate, England.
Mearsheimer, John J. 1994/95. The False Promise of International Institutions. International Security 19 (3):5–49.Google Scholar
Mearsheimer, John J. 2001. The Tragedy of Great Power Politics. New York: Norton.
O'Neill, Barry. 1997. Power and Satisfaction in the Security Council. In The Once and Future Security Council, edited by Bruce Russett, 59–82. New York: St. Martin's Press.
Ostrom, Elinor. 1990. Governing the Commons: Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Oye, Kenneth A. 1986. Explaining Cooperation Under Anarchy: Hypotheses and Strategies. In Cooperation Under Anarchy, edited by Kenneth A. Oye, 1–24. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.
Parsons, Talcott. 1977. The evolution of societies, edited and with an introduction by Jackson Toby. Englewood Cliff, N.J.: Prentice Hall.
Pollack, Mark. 1997. Delegation, Agency, and Agenda-Setting in the European Community. International Organization 51 (1):99–134.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Prantl, Jochen. Forthcoming. Informal Ad Hoc Groupings of States and the UN Security Council. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.
Prantl, Jochen, and Jean E. Krasno. 2004. Informal Groups of Member States. In The United Nations: Confronting the Challenges of a Global Society, edited by Jean E. Krasno, 311–57. Boulder, Colo.: Lynne Rienner.
Roberts, Adam. 1999. NATO's Humanitarian War over Kosovo. Survival 41 (3):102–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roberts, Adam. 2003. Order/Justice Issues at the United Nations. In Order and Justice in International Relations, edited by Rosemary Foot, John Gaddis, and Andrew Hurrell, 49–79. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Rotberg, Robert I. 2004. When States Fail: Causes and Consequences. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.
Russett, Bruce. 1997. Ten Balances for Weighing UN Reform Proposals. In The Once and Future Security Council, edited by Bruce Russett, 13–28. New York: St. Martin's Press.
Simmons, Beth A., and Lisa L. Martin. 2002. International Organization and Institutions. In Handbook of International Relations, edited by Walter Carlsnaes, Thomas Risse, and Beth A. Simmons, 192–234. London: Sage Publications.
Slaughter, Anne-Marie. 2004. A New World Order. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.
Stedman, Stephen John. 2001. Implementing Peace Agreements in Civil Wars: Lessons and Recommendations for Policymakers. IPA Policy Paper Series on Peace Implementation, May 2001. New York: International Peace Academy.
Sutterlin, James S. 1995. The United Nations and the Maintenance of International Peace and Security: A Challenge to be Met. Westport, Conn.: Praeger.
Talbott, Strobe. 2002. The Russia Hand. New York: Random House.
United Nations (UN). 1973–83. Index to proceedings of the Security Council. New York: United Nations.
United Nations (UN). 2004. Growth in UN Membership, 1945–2004. Available at 〈http://www.un.org/Overview/growth.htm〉. Accessed 10 March 2005.
UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations. 2004. United Nations Peacekeeping, 1948–2004. Available at 〈http://www.un.org/Depts/dpko/dpko/timeline/index.html〉. Accessed 10 March 2005.
UN Department of Public Information. 1997. Charter of the United Nations and Statute of the International Court of Justice. New York: United Nations.
Vergau, Hans-Joachim. 2002. Genscher und das südliche Afrika. In Genscher, Deutschland und Europa, edited by Hans-Dieter Lucas, 223–39. Baden-Baden, Germany: Nomos.
Wallensteen, Peter. 2002. Understanding Conflict Resolution: War, Peace and the Global System. London: Sage Publications.
Whitfield, Teresa. 1999. The Role of the United Nations in El Salvador and Guatemala: A Preliminary Comparison. In Comparative Peace Processes in Latin America, edited by Cynthia J. Arnson, 257–90. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press.
Woods, Ngaire. 1999. Good Governance in International Organizations. Global Governance 5 (1):39–61.Google Scholar