The Arnold A. Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies presents: The History of the UN Through its Most Cited Resolutions
Thursday, March 21, 2024

Moderated by Michael Doyle, University Professor, School of Law and Department of Political Science, Columbia University

With Rafael Mesquita, Visiting Scholar, Arnold A. Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies; Assistant Professor of International Relations at the Federal University of Pernambuco (UFPE, Brazil)

In this presentation, Saltzman Institute Visiting Scholar Rafael Mesquita will show the motivation and early results of his project to tell the history of the UN through its most cited resolutions. The research’s added value stems from its original corpus containing the 20,000+ resolutions that the main UN organs (Security Council, General Assembly, ECOSOC, and global conferences) have adopted from 1946 to 2022 and their cross-citations. This web of interlinked documents allows for the application of network analysis and text-mining tools to deliver the first-ever data-driven account of how the UN and leading global norms have evolved. The presentation will zoom in on resolutions concerning Human Rights, Peacekeeping, and Migration as illustrative examples. By sharing this content, Rafael Mesquita hopes to: collect feedback and comments that contribute to his book manuscript, identify synergies with research projects conducted by peers, and brainstorm on policy-oriented applications in partnership with the UN.