A Nonpermanent Seat in the United Nations Security Council

Abstract

This article contributes with a novel systematic theoretical and empirical exploration of why states find a nonpermanent seat in the UN Security Council attractive. Three conceptualizations of power—to influence, to network, and to gain status—guide the empirical analysis. A telephone interview survey with diplomatic staff at Member States’ permanent missions to the United Nations in New York provides readers with original and unique empirical knowledge of state perceptions of power. The candidature for a seat comes with expectations of influencing decision-making, despite modest estimations of the opportunity to have impact. Opportunities to network and to gain status are not frequent reasons for a candidature. Diplomats’ estimations are nevertheless higher on the opportunity to actually establish relevant relationships and to gain status brought by a seat.

Feminist Foreign Policy 3.0: Advancing Ethics and Gender Equality in Global Politics

“…49 By maintaining a high profile within UN agencies, most recently within the Security Council as a non-permanent member, Sweden has sought to promote its feminist message of protecting women and girls from the harmful effects of gender-based violence as a weapon of war and as an expression of power in intimate relations. 50,51 In addition, the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs (MFA) has located such commitments within the global combat of extremism by reaffirming its support for the prevention of "gender-related and sexual violence of terrorist groups by pushing these issues in international anti-terrorism forums and by supporting actors, including civil society organizations, that are working to address violent extremism, radicalization, recruitment and destructive masculinities." 52 The move toward the politics of protection and rights as part of its feminist foreign policy can, at least in part, be linked to Foreign Minister Wallström's personal ethics and dedication to gender justice across borders.…”

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“…The five permanent members (P5) hold veto power and possess important institutional memory in addition to their other sources of power. Unlike larger elected members, small states do not wield sufficient relative power to offset some of the P5's advantages (Ekengren et al, 2020). Their diplomatic resources are stretched by the workload of monitoring and deciding on the many conflicts that the UN has managed for years (Adler-Nissen & Pouliot, 2014).…”

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“…Whereas the P5 members are part of an established network of powerful countries' representations, 81,82,97,98 the E10 members represent the outcome of countries' pursuits of temporary inclusion in the said network. 99,100 The P5-E10 dynamic needs no further elaboration since the point highlights that unequal power relations are part of the council's structural make-up, not only via the veto system.…”