Process Matters: Legislative Procedure in the United Nations General Assembly

该项目提出，将议会视为立法机构--特别是通过关注其程序和程序--可以极大地扩大我们对国家行为和在国际组织中的影响力的理解。美国每年在联合国相关活动上花费数千万美元。这一项目提供了一条潜在的新的理解途径，可能会改变未来国家安全和其他外交局势的结果。通过更好地解释国家行为背后的逻辑和动机，它可以为美国决策者提供更明智的手段，从战略上导航联合国取得成功的道路。丰富的国际关系文献关注联合国大会的唱名表决结果。联合国大会促进了国际体系中国家之间的合作，并为各国发出重要信号提供了论坛。该机构帮助国家管理集体资源，降低联合决策的交易成本，并增加有关战争与和平决策的透明度。为了了解国家偏好是如何在联合国内部聚合起来的，学者们将大量注意力集中在进程结束时的收养投票上。但最终通过只是故事的一部分，可以说是很小的一部分；在联合国大会上发生的大部分冲突和谈判都发生在议程项目和决议提交全体会议之前。因此，该项目将有助于更好地了解已发现的权力来源和未被发现的冲突层面。

This project proposes that thinking of the assembly as a legislature-specifically by focusing on its process and procedure-can significantly expand our understanding of state behavior and influence in international organizations. The United States spends tens of millions of dollars on United Nations related activities each year. This project provides a potential avenue of new understanding that could alter the outcome of national security and other diplomatic situations in the future. By better explaining the logic and motives behind state behavior, it could provide US decision makers with a more informed means of strategically navigating UN pathways to successful outcomes.A wealth of international relations literature focuses on roll call voting outcomes in the United Nations General Assembly. The United Nations General Assembly facilitates cooperation between states in the international system and provides a forum for states to send important signals. The institution helps states manage collective resources, lowers the transaction costs of joint decision-making, and increases the transparency with which decisions are made regarding war and peace. In order to understand how state preferences are aggregated within the United Nations, scholars have focused much attention on adoption votes at the end of the process. But final adoption is only one?arguably small?part of the story; much of the conflict and negotiation that occurs in the UNGA happens before agenda items and resolutions ever reach the plenary floor. This project will thus help better understand the uncover sources of power and dimensions of conflict that have gone undetected.