Agenda Setting in the UN General Assembly

The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) is a cornerstone of the post-war world order. Painful and consequential decisions such as economic sanctions and military interventions are taken in the UN Security Council. By contrast, the UNGA offers member states a protected sphere in which they can reveal their foreign policy positions and priorities on a broad set of different issues ranging from disarmament to development aid. The research project is going to study position taking in the UNGA by applying computer-assisted content analysis to all draft resolutions and verbatim minutes since 1991. Specifically, the project studies how member states cooperate in setting the UNGA’s agenda. We test competing explanations for the observed foreign policy positions and cooperation patterns that focus on (1) socio-economic factors, (2) international politics and (3) domestic politics. In doing so, the project contributes to our understanding of global politics in an always faster changing world.