Bargaining in the UN Security Council: Setting the Global Agenda

The UN Security Council is the most powerful UN institution. It’s also one of the most politicized and controversial bodies of the world organization. Drawing on their new book Bargaining in the UN Security Council: Setting the Global Agenda (Oxford UP, 2022), Professors Susan Allen and Amy Yuen share insights into why the Security Council takes up some issues for discussion and not others. Adapting insights from legislative bargaining, Allen and Yuen demonstrate that the agenda-setting powers granted in the institutional rules offer less powerful Council members the opportunity to influence the content of a resolution without jeopardizing its passage. Engaging with case studies on North Korea's nuclear programme, NATO bombing in Kosovo, and the Responsibility to Protect doctrine, Allen and Yuen explore what factors shape the Council's actions, the role of public or private diplomacy, and how external factors like international and domestic public reactions motivate grandstanding behaviors and shape resolutions.

Loraine Sievers, one of the foremost experts on the workings of the Security Council and former Chief of the UN Security Council Secretariat Branch, provides commentary. The talk will be moderated by Professor Daniel Naujoks, director a.i. of SIPA’s international organization and UN studies specialization.

Susan Allen, Amy Yuen and Yuen Loraine Sievers,will participate virtually. Columbia students, staff, and faculty can opt to join the in-person joint viewing or to join virtually. Due to the pandemic, other guests only have the option to join online. Please see the separate registration options.

Speaker bios

Susan Hannah Allen is an Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Mississippi. She received her Ph.D. from Emory University in 2004. Her research interests include international organizations, economic sanctions, and consequences of military coercion. Her work appears in numerous journals including International Studies Quarterly, Journal of Conflict Resolution, and Journal of Peace Research.

Amy Yuen is Associate Professor of Political Science at Middlebury College in Vermont. She is author of several articles about intervention, peacekeeping, and the Security Council appearing in journals such as International Organization, International Studies Quarterly, Journal of Conflict Resolution, and Journal of Peace Research. She has also published formal and empirical papers on research methods and American politics in journals such as Political Analysis and Political Research Quarterly.

Loraine Sievers served the United Nations for over thirty years, concluding her career as Chief of the Security Council Secretariat Branch. Amongst her primary responsibilities was providing guidance to Council members, particularly each month's rotating Presidency, concerning the Council's procedures and practices. Loraine also participated as the Secretariat expert in the Security Council Informal Working Group on Documentation and Other Procedural Questions from 2006-11. Previously, she served as Secretary to the Afghanistan and Sierra Leone Sanctions Committees, Programme Officer in the Iraq Oil-for-Food Programme, political analyst in the Regional Affairs Division, and speechwriter. Loraine contributed to the Repertoire of the Practice of the Security Council and several of the UN 'Blue Books' on conflict situations addressed by the Organization. Loraine is co-author of the Procedure of the UN Security Council (OUP) and operates the website www.scprocedure.org.