Abstract
The study places on record BRICS’ voting data from 2011 on the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) related to issues of peace and security. It investigates the cohesion in terms of BRICS’ voting behaviour on the UNSC during 2011, when all BRICS member states held a seat on the Council concurrently either by virtue of a permanent member seat (China and Russia) or a non-permanent member seat (Brazil, India and South Africa). The study additionally investigates the cohesion in terms of individual BRICS member states’ declared foreign policy and that of the objective of the BRICS grouping affirmed under the grouping’s ‘annual summit declarations’. The voting data and related explanations are drawn from the United Nations Bibliographical Information System (UNBISnet) and the United Nations Media Coverage and Press Releases portal – two main databases concerning voting records in the UN and found in the Dag Hammarskjold online library.
Using Graham’s three-step model of voting behaviour (discussed in Chapter Two), the study traces each BRICS member state’s declared foreign policy in 2011 in the first step, along with the objectives of the BRICS grouping (Chapter Three); the voting actions of BRICS member states on 58 UNSC resolutions related to peace and security during 2011 in the second step (Chapter Three); and the explanations and interpretations of the voting actions in the final step (Chapter Four). By organising the data in the above manner, the study intends to examine the voting behaviour of BRICS member states during 2011 on the UNSC more manageably. The model is applied to resolutions relating to international peace and security tabled at the UNSC during 2011. A table is also used to assess whether the voting actions of individual BRICS member states portray cohesion or divergence within BRICS.
In summary, therefore, the grouping’s voting behaviour is analysed concerning issues of peace and security resolutions tabled at the UNSC during 2011.
The study concludes that in 2011 there was cohesion between the individual declared foreign policies of BRICS member states, between the declared foreign policies of BRICS member states and the objectives of the BRICS grouping; and more significantly cohesion in the voting actions of BRICS member states on the UNSC. The grouping portrayed cohesion on over 96 per cent of the votes on peace and security.
It is evident that the BRICS grouping portrayed divergence on two of the 58 resolutions under question, specifically on the situation in Libya and ‘Peace and Security in Africa’, concerning the situation in Eritrea. This could be attributed to the fact that 2011 was the first time that the BRICS grouping all held a concurrent seat on the UNSC, and the first time that the grouping was presented with the opportunity to cooperate on issues of peace and security, on a multilateral platform, such as the UNSC. Overall BRICS demonstrated a commitment to international peace and security and multilateralism, in its voting behaviour at the UNSC in 2011.
M.A. (Politics)