The EU and Asia in the United Nations Security Council

22 Pages Posted: 12 Mar 2012

See all articles by Jan Wouters

Jan Wouters

KU Leuven - Leuven Centre for Global Governance Studies

Matthieu Burnay

Leuven Centre for Global Governance Studies

Date Written: December 2011

Abstract

This contribution addresses the political and legal aspects of European and Asian membership and practice in the UNSC. First, it highlights the difficulties of the European Union (EU) becoming a fully-fledged actor in the UN. In particular, it examines how attempts to utilize the UN General Assembly (UNGA) as a gateway to enhancing the European international status have largely failed. Further, European divisions on UNSC reform show that most Member States still reason from a national perspective as far as this organ is concerned. Asia appears to be even more divided: its regional organisations have not been empowered to play a significant role within the UN and the continent faces heavy intra-regional divisions. Secondly, this contribution considers the voting behaviour of European and Asian countries in the UNSC. Here, it will be submitted that diverging interpretations of the concepts of sovereignty and peace and security explain these differences to a certain extent. However, in order to fully grasp the attitudes of the sole Asian P5 member - China - one must recognize that its primary driver is its perceived national interest and quest for domestic stability.

Keywords: Asia, European Union, United Nations, United Nations Security Council, ASEAN, China

Suggested Citation

Wouters, Jan and Burnay, Matthieu, The EU and Asia in the United Nations Security Council (December 2011). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2020332 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2020332

Jan Wouters (Contact Author)

KU Leuven - Leuven Centre for Global Governance Studies ( email )

House De Dorlodot - Deberiotstraat 34
Leuven, B-3000
Belgium

HOME PAGE: http://www.globalgovernancestudies.eu

Matthieu Burnay

Leuven Centre for Global Governance Studies ( email )

Van Evenstraat 2B
Charles Deberiotstraat 34
Leuven, B-3000
Belgium

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
155
Abstract Views
1,268
Rank
343,436
PlumX Metrics