Research

Researchers have begun to investigate the effectiveness of a wide range of diplomatic tools used by various international and domestic actors in the field of human rights. Using new data on official visits by the UN Secretary-General (UNSG), we investigate whether and how UN diplomacy improves human rights in a visited state. We argue that UNSG visits can improve human rights conditions in the visited states for two related reasons. First, news and discussions around UNSG visits serve as focal points for mobilizing human rights advocacy. Second, UNSG’s recognition and endorsement of local civil society organizations and activists can raise their visibility and legitimacy, and thus empower their organizational capacity. Our empirical analysis lends strong support to the hypothesis that, controlling for the factors associated with the UNSG’s travel decisions, these visits substantially improve human rights conditions in the visited countries.

The rise of China as a global power has been a prominent feature in international politics. Simultaneously, the United States has been engaged in ongoing conflicts in the Middle East and South Asia for the past two decades, requiring a significant commitment of resources, focus, and determination. This paper investigates how third-party countries react to the United States’ preoccupation with these conflicts, particularly in terms of diplomatic cooperation and alignment. We introduce a measure of US distraction and utilize network-based indicators to assess diplomatic cooperation or alignment. Our study tests the hypothesis that when the US is distracted, other states are more likely to cooperate with its principal rival, China. Our findings support this hypothesis, revealing that increased cooperation with China is more probable during periods of US distraction. However, a closer examination of state responses shows that democracies generally distance themselves from China under these circumstances, while non- democracies move closer to it.