Browsing by Author "Reire, Gunda"

Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    China’s Voting Practice at the UN Security Council, Its Legal and Political Interpretation: Case of Syria
    (Rīga Stradiņš University, 2021) Reire, Gunda; Centre for International Studies, Latvia
    This article examines intersection of three contemporary issues that occupy academic thought intensively: China’s global politics, its changing voting practice at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), and the international response to the civil war in Syria. The aim of the article is to provide quantitative and qualitative analysis of China’s voting practice in the UNSC regarding the civil war in Syria, to outline a legal and political interpretation of its voting patterns and to conceptualise China’s politics in the UNSC regarding this issue. The article argues that reasons behind China’s rapidly growing use of the veto in the UNSC regarding Syria are vaguely related to the case of Syria itself, but directly reflect the primacy of China’s domestic politics and its strategic aspirations to reshape global governance. Growing concern within the international community about the human rights abuses taking place on a mass scale against Uighurs in Xinjiang is the most prominent catalyst that enables and provokes China’s systemic reaction. Therefore, although China has neither geopolitical nor strategic interests in Syria, Syria’s case serves as a battleground for China’s attempts to transform the collectively accepted interpretation of multilateralism, democratic values, and norms. This aspect underlines the necessity to observe China’s politics from the perspective of social constructivism. Methodologically, this article draws on political discourse analysis theory, examines China’s arguments in the UNSC and argues that China’s voting behaviour in the UNSC regarding Syria focused on reinterpretation of two grand concepts of international law: state sovereignty and non-interference.
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    Small States in the United Nations Security Council: Legal and Conceptual Aspects versus Practical Perspective
    (Rīga Stradiņš University, 2021) Reire, Gunda; Center for International Studies, Latvia
    The article focuses on the prospects for work conducted by small states in the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) and examines two aspects which frame the work of small states in the UNSC – the legal aspect (institutional and procedural) and the conceptual aspect (the concept of small states), comparing them with the work and achievements of small states in praxis. The aim of the article is to provide qualitative and comparative analysis of small states’ work in the UNSC, to outline legal and political interpretation of their activities and to compare legal and conceptual framework with the practical perspective. The research is designed to be relevant for Latvia in the context of its candidature for a non-permanent seat of the UNSC at the elections in 2025, and it analyses cases of Lithuania’s and Estonia’s membership. The author of the article argues that despite the minimal role provided for the small states in the UNSC by international law and the theoretical concept, cases of Lithuania and Estonia show that the practical perspective proves a much higher capability, influence and ability of small states to profile themselves actively within the global agenda while at the same time remaining in the aforementioned legal and conceptual boundaries. This can happen under circumstances where there are minor systemic challengers, lack of triggers for security of small states, and overlapping of the international security agenda and their field of expertise.