"Tell Me What You Want": Analyzing the Visegrád Countries' Votes in the UN General Assembly. (February 2014)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Onderco, Michal
• Is Part Of: East European politics and societies. Volume 28:Number 1(2014)
• Page Start: 63
• Page End: 83
• Publication Date: 2014-02
• Subjects: Visegrád -- United Nations -- geopolitics -- transformation; Europe, Eastern -- Politics and government -- 1945-1989 -- Periodicals; Europe, Eastern -- Politics and government -- 1989- -- Periodicals; Europe, Eastern -- Social conditions -- Periodicals; 947.0005
• DOI: 10.1177/0888325413484757
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0888-3254

Abstract

This article sets out to study the voting pattern of the Visegrád countries in the United Nations General Assembly, since the beginning of their respective memberships, analyzing their voting affinity with the Soviet Union (Russia) and the United States. Somewhat predictably, Visegrád countries tended to be closer to the Soviet Union during the Cold War. Surprisingly though, the pattern does not change drastically after the end of the Cold War, and Visegrád countries still tend to vote more closely with Russia than with the United States. Equally striking is the fact that Visegrád countries tend to vote almost identically, without any changes given domestic political changes. Pattern of higher agreement with Russia than with the United States can be seen also when inspecting the voting of all EU members. Such finding is relevant for the study of the geopolitical transformation of the Central European region, but also wider geopolitical dynamics in the UN General Assembly.