Having a say in international affairs: US Congress and United Nations

In recent years, there has been a growth of interest in parliament’s and legislatures role in international affairs. Parliamentary diplomacy conception has been introduced to describe the role of parliaments as seeking to contribute parliamentary perspective to global governance. At the same time, international politics and organizations is seen as a realm of states, diplomacy and negotiations, where parliamentarians or parliaments and legislatures have no direct representation, as for example, is the case in the UN General Assembly. Despite the fact that US Congress powers have been extensively studied from different perspectives, not that much focus has been directed to examine its role in international organizations, with a few exceptions. This paper will have a specific approach to examine how US Congress have a say regarding the UN and how the members of Congress consider their own authority. The main sources for the paper will consist of US Congress materials, including relevant committee hearings and Congressional record. The idea is to track down the debates that Congress actually takes on as well as to provide a better understanding how US Congress interacts with the UN related topics and the UN itself, whereas the US representation in the UN is reserved for the government delegation.