Multilateralism, Security and the Global Political System: The US and the EU at the UN

The article analyzes data on US and EU behavior at the UN and does not confirm the deep estrangement between the US and the UN nor the real possibility of a EU support to a multilateral order in opposition to the US that has been highlighted by some IR scholars. The article claims that the EU does not challenge the metanorms at the basis of the UN. On the contrary, the EU supports the current (US-based) constitutional order and tends to improve its output legitimacy in consideration of changes in the security agenda. In this respect, the US and the EU seem to complement each other operationally rather than represent opposite models of multilateralism expressing a diverging institutional path.