The Chair in the UN Context: Assessing Functions and Performance

The paper looks at the role of the Chair in different settings within the UN context, comprising the Security Council and different Working Groups. We assess success and failure in three case studies, whereby the role of the Chair was particularly influential. Our foundings concur that the Chair can emerge as a very important outcome determinant in multilateral negotiations, by means of its agenda shaping and brokerage functions, exploiting gaps in its formal mandate and statutory role. However, such influence is conditional upon exogenous (political power configuration in support of the Chair's initiatives) and endogenous (Chair-related, institutional constraints, namely the scope of the Chair's mandate and decision-making rules) parameters.

About the authors

Spyros Blavoukos ([email protected]) is completing his Ph.D. at the Department of Government, University of Essex. His publications include articles in European Union Politics and South European Society and Politics.

Dimitris Bourantonis ([email protected]) is Assistant Professor of International Relations at the Department of International and European Economic Relations in Athens University of Economics and Business. His research interest are in international institutions, with emphasis on the UN, and diplomacy. His most recent publications include The History and the Politics of the UN Security Council Reform (Routledge, 2005).