Cohesion or Cacophony? An analysis of EU voting behaviour in the United Nations General Assembly from the 62nd until the 65th session

Abstract: The EU has struggled for many years to be able to speak with a single voice in external affairs. The aim of this thesis is to analyze how cohesive the EU is in the UN General Assembly (UNGA). This is done by studying the voting behaviour of the EU member states in the UNGA from the 62nd until the 65th session (2007-2011). Three hypotheses are constructed to test whether the EU voting cohesion has been affected by the change of US administration in 2009, the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty in 2009 and the financial crisis that reached Europe in 2008. The hypotheses are based on assumptions from realism and the new institutionalisms. The method used is Roll-Call Analysis and the material is the voting records of the UNGA. The main findings are that the EU voting cohesion has decreased over the analyzed period and that the hypothesis about the financial crisis therefore is the one closest to the empirical findings, although it cannot be completely supported.