Action or inaction: United Nations Security Council activity, 1994–2013
| DOI | 10.1177/0022343319900222 |
| Date | 01 September 2020 |
| Published date | 01 September 2020 |
| Author | Susan Hannah Allen,Amy T Yuen |
| Subject Matter | Special Data Features |
Special Data Feature
Action or inaction: United Nations Security
Council activity, 1994–2013
Susan Hannah Allen
Department of Political Science, University of Mississippi
Amy T Yuen
Department of Political Science, Middlebury College
Abstract
This article presents new data on the behavior of the United Nations Security Council from 1994 to 2013.
Which international issues does the United Nations Security Council act upon? Which issues are ignored,
languishing for years on the Council’s agenda? What are the characteristics of the issues that are considered by
the Council and what are the characteristics of those that are overlooked? Beginning with the annual Summary
Statements on matters of which the Security Council is seized, information was gathered for every agenda item
that appears on the Security Council’s agenda during this period. Daily data are recorded for the number of
public meetings and private informal consultations held, as well as the number of resolutions (which are voted
on), presidential statements (which are a product of consensus), and vetoes that occur. These data offer scholars
new opportunities for testing theories of legislative behavior in international institutions, particularly on issues
of peace and security, that have not been available heretofore. In this article, we introduce the data and coding
processes, present trends, illustrate prospects for research that could benefit from these data and provide an
empirical application.
Keywords
international organization, international security organization, United Nations Security Council
Introduction
In October 1999, the United Nations Mission in Sierra
Leone (UNAMSIL) was created with a mandate to sup-
port the tenuous Lome Peace Agreement and to aid the
government as well as the Economic Community of
West African States military observer group with disar-
mament and demobilization. In May 2000, the Revolu-
tionary United Front in Sierra Leone kidnapped 500
UN peacekeepers and reneged on the peace accord that
the peacekeepers were invested in implementing. These
actions nearly derailed peacekeeping efforts there and
perhaps in Africa more broadly.
Uncertain of how to respond to these challenges, the
UN Security Council worked tirelessly in more than 75
informal sessions during 2000 to hammer out the details
for how to create a mission and mandate up to the
challenges present in Sierra Leone.
1
Leadership from the
United Kingdom was important for making progress on
the recovery and re-invigoration of UNAMSIL, but this
should not simply be seen as a story of P5 power and
influence. UNAMSIL is also often lauded as a peace-
keeping success story (Olonisakin, 2008; Bernath &
Corresponding authors:
shallen@olemiss.edu, ayuen@middlebury.edu
1
While public records of these sessions are not kept, the topics for
informal consultations are made public. Content from consultations
is also referred to directly in several communications from the
Secretary-General to the Council (S/200 0/13) as well in speeches
made in public meetings of the Council (S/PV.4098; S/PV.4168;
S/PV.4186).
Journal of Peace Research
2020, Vol. 57(5) 658–665
ªThe Author(s) 2020
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DOI: 10.1177/0022343319900222
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