This study examines emerging geopolitical alliances through Social Network Analysis of UNGA voting patterns. Using Voeten’s dataset, similarity scores, Louvain clustering, and centrality measures, it identifies fragmented voting blocs and highlights the shift toward fluid, issue-based geopolitical partnerships.
This study examines how India’s free trade agreements and critical mineral pacts with Africa influence macroeconomic growth, supply chain resilience, and industrial performance. By combining quantitative and qualitative methods, the research addresses the void regarding mineral diplomacy in trade literature. It evaluates whether strategic partnerships with initiatives like KABIL enhance India’s industrial security and clean-energy transition while balancing resource acquisition, domestic value addition, and sustainable development.
Authors: Boluwatife Osanyibi, Bhavya Anand, Diksha Chopra Abstract The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) serves as a key multilateral forum where member states articulate their foreign policy preferences through voting behavior, offering valuable insights into the evolving structure of international politics. Among the issues debated within the UN, the Israel–Palestine conflict remains one of the most enduring and politically contested, making it an appropriate case for examining contemporary geopolitical alignments. This study investigates emerging geopolitical alliances by analyzing UNGA voting behavior on Israel–Palestine-related resolutions using Social Network Analysis (SNA). The theoretical foundation integrates Structural Realism, Defensive Realism, Constructivism, Postcolonial Theory, Liberal Institutionalism, and Complex Interdependence Theory which collectively demonstrates that state behavior within multilateral institutions is shaped by the interaction of strategic interests, power configurations, institutional linkages, and shared historical and normative identities. The research adopts a quantitative design using official voting records obtained from the United Nations Digital Library (UNDL) and the United Nations Information System on the Question of Palestine (UNISPAL). Voting data for General Assembly resolutions are coded numerically and analyzed using Social Network Analysis in Girvan–Newman community detection algorithms, together with centrality measures, were employed to identify voting communities, influential states, and bridging actors. The findings reveal the three major geopolitical voting blocs: a highly cohesive Global South–BRICS coalition, an isolated United States–Israel bloc, and a European intermediary group characterized by strategic abstentions and variable voting behavior The analysis also identifies bridge states that connect polarized communities and highlights a transition towards a more fragmented and multipolar international order. Overall, the study demonstrates that UNGA voting patterns serves as a robust indicator of evolving geopolitical alliances and offers important insights into contemporary patterns of international cooperation and diplomatic alignment. Keywords: United Nations General Assembly, geopolitical alliances, network analysis, voting patterns, Israel –Palestine Issue. 1. Introduction The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) serves as one of the most significant multilateral forums on which countries publicly express their foreign policy preference on political, security and humanitarian matters that have global ramifications. The voting behavior of member states in the United Nations General Assembly represents one of the most observable manifestations of foreign policy in practice. Although General Assembly resolutions are not legally enforceable, Votes cast in favor, against, or through abstention is not merely a procedural exercise but a reflection of broader geopolitical dynamics. States often vote in accordance with their strategic interests, regional affiliations, ideological commitments, historical relationships, economic partnerships, and domestic political considerations. Consequently, similarities in voting behavior may indicate the existence of diplomatic coalitions or emerging geopolitical alliances and the evolving dynamics of global politics. UNGA vote records, in contrast to bilateral diplomatic pronouncements, offer standardized, publicly accessible, and longitudinal data that allow for the methodical analysis of foreign policy behavior across time and among nations. In order to study ideological proximity, alliance formation, regional cooperation, and shifts in global political alignments, international relations research has made considerable use of UN vote statistics. Among numerous issues debated within the United Nations, Israel- Palestine conflict is one of the most deeply entrenched and contentious conflict in contemporary international relations. For decades, protracted conflict has influenced global diplomacy, international laws, humanitarian policies and the foreign policy orientation of states across international relations. The root cause of conflict lies in competing historical narratives, territorial disputes, security concerns, religious significance, and the emergence of both Zionist and Palestinian nationalist movements during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The conflict has evolved through several defining events, including the British Mandate for Palestine, the adoption of the United Nations Partition Plan (1947), the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, the Arab–Israeli wars, the displacement of Palestinian refugees (Nakba), the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza following the Six-Day War of 1967, the Oslo Peace Process, and the Hamas attack of October 2023. These events have made conflict exceptionally resistant to peaceful resolution despite numerous diplomatic negotiations longstanding issues such as the status of Jerusalem, Israeli settlements, Palestinian refugees, security, and the right to self-determination remain unsettled (Gelvin, 2021; Pappé, 2006). United Nations have played a fundamental role in addressing intractable conflict. United Nations have attempted to provide a legal framework, humanitarian assistance, peacekeeping efforts and diplomatic mechanism though adoption of UNGA and UNSC resolutions aimed at resolving dispute. The Israel–Palestine conflict serves as an excellent example for exploring geopolitical alignments, as it has consistently featured in the agenda of the United Nations General Assembly for many years and has led to repeated resolutions garnering significant involvement from member states. This issue often goes beyond regional politics and highlights larger divisions within the international framework, which makes it especially relevant for examining trends in diplomatic collaboration and alliance building. Voting behavior on Israel–Palestine-related resolutions extend beyond the immediate issues under consideration and often reflects broader geopolitical realities. States frequently vote in accordance with strategic partnerships, regional alliances, ideological commitments, historical ties, security interests, and evolving diplomatic priorities. While some countries have demonstrated remarkable consistency in their voting behavior, others have altered their positions in response to domestic political changes, leadership transitions, regional developments, or shifts in the international balance of power. Analyzing these patterns provides an opportunity to understand the evolution of international alliances beyond traditional military or regional blocs and offers valuable insights into changing patterns of global diplomacy. The growing availability of United Nations voting data has enabled researchers to employ quantitative approaches for analyzing interstate behavior. Among the various analytical approaches, Wasserman and Faust (1994) argue that network analysis offers a systematic framework for examining relationships among actors based on their interactions. Applied to UN voting, this approach conceptualises states as interconnected actors whose voting similarities reveal patterns of cooperation, coalition formation, and geopolitical alignment. Newman (2010) further explains that network analysis enables researchers to identify clusters of closely connected actors, measure the relative importance of individual actors within a network, and examine changes in network structures over time. a powerful methodology to represent the relationship among different entities and to
This study examines whether the India–UAE CEPA (2022) has causally driven green energy investment or merely coincided with broader global and domestic renewable trends, finding that while bilateral trade has grown, renewable energy investment impact remains limited.
Authors: Disha Bisht, Mitali Upadhyay, Komal Shelar, Mahak Prajapati, Marilyn Anand, Neelam Singh, Pawani Arora, Rosy Rosalin Patra Table of Contents 1. Abstract 2. Introduction 2.1 Historical Background 2.2 Methodology 3. Literature Review 3.1 Introduction to Literature Review 3.2 Argument 1 3.3 Argument 2 3.4 Argument 3 3.5 Conclusion 4. Data Analysis and Interpretation 4.1 Introduction 4.2 Method of Analysis 4.3 Quantitative Analysis of India’s UNGA Voting Behaviour 4.4 Theme I: Strategic Autonomy in India’s UNGA Voting Behaviour 4.5 Theme II: Strategic Autonomy and Networked Alignment 4.6 Theme III: Issue-Based Decision Making 4.7 Theme IV: Challenges to Strategic Autonomy 5. Discussion 5.1 Discussion of Findings 5.2 Summary of Findings 6. Conclusion and Recommendations 6.1 Conclusion 6.2 Recommendations 7. References 1. Abstract The voting behaviour of India in the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) serves as an important tool for studying India’s changing foreign policy and attempts to find a balance between strategic autonomy and the increasing number of global partnerships. The current study focuses on India’s UNGA voting patterns from 2000 to 2026 in order to evaluate how India’s foreign policy changes from non-alignment to strategic autonomy, multi-alignment, and a networked approach to foreign policy. In order to do that, the study uses a mixed-methods research design, which includes both quantitative analysis of India’s voting record in the UN General Assembly in various issue areas and qualitative analysis of Explanations of Vote (EoV), government documents, and historical case studies of India’s voting in the UNGA. Special focus is put on the most important geopolitical events, such as the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the Israel-Palestine conflict, and India’s relationships with the Global South. The main question that is discussed within the context of this research design is whether India’s flexible foreign policy approach reflects strategic autonomy or a reactive hedging strategy. The research will contribute to larger debates concerning the diplomacy of rising powers, multilateralism, and foreign policy-making in the multipolar international system. Keywords: India; United Nations General Assembly (UNGA); Strategic Autonomy; Multi-alignment; Global Partnerships; Voting Behaviour; Foreign Policy; Global Governance. 2. Introduction In the new international order, which is becoming increasingly fractured and increasingly subject to intense competition between great powers, a nation’s vote in the UN General Assembly (UNGA) stands for much more than merely expressing its foreign policy preferences; it stands for a country’s strategic interests, international positioning, and its vision for the new world order. As an emerging economic superpower with a trajectory that is among the highest in the world, India has garnered growing policy and scholarly interest precisely due to its uniquely successful strategy of maintaining autonomy of decision-making in pursuit of an expanding network of ties and partnerships. UNGA, although it has non-binding decisions, is still among the world’s largest gatherings to understand countries’ foreign policy interests, preferences, and actions in major international crises and to make sense of diplomatic engagements (Voeten, 2012). UNGA voting behaviour represents the ideological commitments of emerging powers as well as broader geopolitical calculations, domestic interests, and developing international partnerships. India’s voting behaviour has attracted considerable academic interest, given its status as one of the world’s largest democracies and a rising global actor, and its unique ability to engage simultaneously with competing power centres while maintaining its distinct foreign policy identity. 2.1 Historical Background Historically, India’s foreign policy has been influenced by the principles of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) emphasising sovereignty, anti-colonialism, peaceful coexistence, and strategic independence (Pye & Mohan, 2004). However, the evolving nature of the international system after the Cold War era, the rise of China, economic globalization, technological competition, and a shifting security environment have led to a shift in the pattern of external engagements of India. Instead of maintaining a strict non-alignment policy, the foreign policy of India is now seeking ‘strategic autonomy’ or multi-alignment and networked alignment through which it is working with many states in the international arena, some of which are competitors, without entering any alliance with them (Hall, 2019; Schottli, 2019). Through such a strategy, India can secure the maximum diplomatic freedom while protecting its national interests in terms of security, economics, technology, and geopolitics. This evolving foreign policy strategy is reflected in the voting behaviour of India in the UN General Assembly. The current voting behaviour of India, as it presents a range of issues before the voter, is not divided on the basis of ideological opposites. This issue-based, pragmatic voting has allowed India to free itself from the inflexibilities of a fixed bloc-based geopolitical allegiance. Recent international developments – the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the Israel-Palestine conflict, discussions on Iran, nuclear disarmament, digital governance, climate negotiations, and reforms of international institutions have further showcased India’s preference for calibrated engagement. India has always abstained from resolutions against major powers and reiterated its commitment to international law, territorial integrity, peaceful discourse and the principles of the UN Charter. Such voting behaviour exemplifies India’s endeavour to strike a balance between strategic autonomy and increasing partnerships involving the United States, Russia, Europe, the Global South and regional organisations such as BRICS, the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) and the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad) (Jaishankar, S, 2020). There is an increasing amount of literature on India’s evolving foreign policy, but many important questions remain unanswered. It includes India’s transition from non-alignment to multi-alignment, defence pacts, Indo-Pacific strategy, and great power relations (Hall, 2019; Pye & Mohan, 2004; Pant & Joshi, 2022). Likewise, quantitative studies have employed UNGA voting similarity indices to examine India’s international alignments (Bailey et al., 2017). However, much of this research is focused on either isolated foreign policy events or bilateral relations with specific powers. Very few studies have attempted to examine India’s UNGA voting behaviour as a comprehensive measure of strategic autonomy over a long period of time on different geopolitical issues. Aggregate voting analyses also tend to ignore the political context, reasons for votes, and issue-specific strategic considerations that shape India’s diplomatic decisions. Some concepts, while closely overlapping, are not interchangeable. Non-alignment mainly encapsulates India’s decision in the Cold War era not to
The Strait of Hormuz illustrates how maritime chokepoints can transform economic interdependence into geopolitical leverage. Through economic coercion and weaponised interdependence, its disruption exposes persistent European energy vulnerability, challenging conventional approaches to energy security and revealing the strategic significance of geography in contemporary geoeconomics.
This study applies network analysis to UN General Assembly voting records (2020–2025), examining patterns around the US-China rivalry, Russia-Ukraine conflict, and BRICS resolutions. Findings reveal established and emerging voting blocs, highlighting new alliance trends within today’s evolving multipolar international system.
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This study examines the influence of international trade agreements and trade openness on economic growth using World Bank data from 1960–2024. Findings reveal a weak relationship between trade openness and GDP growth, highlighting the importance of institutions, infrastructure, productivity, and economic policies.
Keywords: International Trade, Trade Agreements, Trade Openness, Economic Growth, GDP Growth, World Bank
This study uses network analysis of UN General Assembly voting patterns from 1990 to 2019 to identify informal geopolitical alliances. It finds that voting alignment extends well beyond formal institutions like NATO and BRICS, revealing a deeply divided multipolar order.
This study uses United Nations voting data and network analysis to understand how countries align with one another. It identifies three major voting communities and shows how powerful states lead their groups, while countries such as India and Egypt connect different blocs. The findings highlight a more flexible, multipolar world.