Small States’ Pursuit of Impact at the UN Security Council: The Case of Tunisia 2020–2021

Abstract

ABSTRACT In an uncharted era of the COVID 19 pandemic dilemma, Tunisia, a small nation in North Africa, served as an elected member of the Security Council in 2020-2021. The temporal framework of this Tunisian experience coincided with two variables: a. multilateralism has again come under pressure, and b. great power tensions have returned to the Security Council in the last decade. This paper aims at assessing Tunisia’s claim of a ‘successful’ record over its two-year term, and entails the exploration of what factors and stimulants, as well as constraints and challenges, were promising or degrading for a small state to engage and try to make a difference in the UNSC decision-making process. The paper also explores whether Tunisia embraced a potential well-structured African approach to working with the E10 and navigating the nuances of the P5.