Explain International Status from UNGA Draft Sponsorship Networks

• In Event: Collaboration Networks in International Politics

Abstract

Can money and connections buy international influence and improve a state’s international status? This paper argues that outward foreign direct investment (FDI) by a state can improve its international status, as demonstrated in its increased probability of being co-sponsored in the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) drafts initiated by it. This is because outward FDI creates interest groups to change preferences of the host states, affects these states’ public opinion, and even it may change the national identity of these states, among others. By taking a relational approach to studying international status, this paper explores how the FDI affects the UNGA drafts co-sponsorship networks worldwide from 2009 to 2018. Using the temporal exponential random graph models (TERGM), this paper finds that FDI can buy a state influence in the UNGA drafts sponsorship. Furthermore, connections among states in co-sponsorship networks, which are endogenous network features, such as sociality, popularity, and transitivity, all affect co-sponsorship likelihood. From the network perspective, this paper enhances our understanding of the important concept of international status in the age of great power competition by providing a way to increasing a state’s international status without resorting to violent conflicts such as war.

Author

• Weidong Zhang, University of Texas at El Paso