Pushing Soft Power: Middle Power Diplomacy at the UN

Abstract

For decades, a group of countries known as middle powers have sought to bolster United Nations capacity for collective action. The Nordic countries as well as the Netherlands are among the best-known middle powers, like-minded about making multilateralism matter long before the EU sought to craft a common policy at the UN. Middle powers are bridge-builders and consensus-seeking interlocutors seeking to embed multilateral solutions across a range of UN activities. This traditional middle power role has conferred greater legitimacy and influence on these states within the UN context than their modest size and power might otherwise suggest. This chapter assesses the tradition of middle power diplomacy within the UN with a special emphasis on Dutch and Nordic middle power roles. The chapter then explores the ‘Europeanization’ of middle power diplomacy and the impact that EU multilateralism has had on the practice of middle power diplomacy for EU and non-EU middle powers. While the EU’s embrace of multilateralism and support for the UN appear to be compatible with the traditions of middle power multilateral diplomacy, the chapter concludes with an examination of some of the constraints that the EU faces in its embrace of effective multilateralism.