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Centre for Digital Humanities and Multilateralism
23 May 2025

Twin diplomacy: Strategic co-author selection and resolution outcomes at the UNSC

The Centre for Digital Humanities and Multilateralism welcomed Andrea Knapp as part of "The Kitchen Series," a series of informal Friday seminars providing a collaborative forum for engaging with researchers and their projects on the digitisation of data and the use of digitised archival resources. 

On 23 May 2025, the CDHM welcomed presenter Andrea Knapp on the topic of 'Twin diplomacy: Strategic co-author selection and resolution outcomes at the UNSC', in which discussion centered on the study of international cooperation via the indicators of (co)authorship/co-sponsorship using United Nations Security Council Resolution Authors (UNSCRA) as a dataset, including whether such co-sponsorship is more frequent among similar/alike states as well as the cost-benefit ratios and political maneuvering involved in introducing resolutions. You can find the abstracts of this talk and further information about the speakers below.

 

Abstract

International Relations theory argues that International Organizations (IOs) promote cooperation among member states. Practically, however, states do not engage with all peers to the same extent. On what basis are partners selected? While previous studies often measured interstate cooperation at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) through co-voting, such linkage can be accidental or requires little direct engagement. Contrarily, I argue that jointly drafting a resolution offers a reliable measure for cooperation between states steering UNSC affairs. This claim is supported by 75 high-level interviews with United Nations diplomats. Analyzing over 15,000 co-authorship dyads on resolutions targeting complex humanitarian emergencies between 1990 and 2019 with a new dataset based on scraped resolution texts, I find that delegations looking to co-author choose partners with similar domestic characteristics (regime type, wealth, region and political-economic groups) to reduce coordination costs. However, such short-term convenience comes at a long-term cost. The results suggest that resolutions drafted by a more diverse coalition of states are more likely to be adopted (unanimously) and face seldom vetoes. The analysis hence illustrates how strategic partnership selection directs the effectiveness and resilience of multilateral cooperation at the UNSC, encouraging the adoption of more inclusive practices in the production of policy.

 

Speaker

Andrea Knapp is a Ph.D. candidate in Political and Social Sciences (37th cycle) at the University of Bologna. Her research focuses the decision-making of International Organizations (particularly the United Nations and NATO), conflict intervention and peace missions. Her doctoral thesis investigates state influence on conflict negotiation processes at the United Nations Security Council since 1990. For the 2024/2025 academic year, Andrea is teaching assistant for the course "Introduction to International Relations" (BAES) and academic collaborator for the course "Technology and Change in Global Politics".