IBSA's role in international peace and security: a look from within the United Nations

Abstract

In 2011, three democratic emerging powers, India, Brazil, and South Africa served as non-permanent members of the United Nations (UN) Security Council. This was the same year that civil wars in both Libya and Syria erupted. Using both qualitative and quantitative methods, this paper examines the involvement of India, Brazil, and South Africa through looking at their statements, actions, and votes made within the UN context. The qualitative section focuses almost exclusively on the statements and actions. The quantitative section builds on the qualitative section by analyzing the votes made within the UN General Assembly, the UN Human Rights Council, and the UN Security Council using factor analysis and crosstabulation. My results show that India, Brazil, and South Africa, despite their limited joint diplomatic institutionalization, presented an impressive degree of coordination, meriting them consideration as players within the international peace and security community.