Abraham Holtzman

Members of Congress as Presidential Diplomats in the United Nations

In a unique cooperative relationship in foreign affairs between the executive and legislative branches, the president appoints and the Senate confirms two members of Congress each year to help articulate U.S. policies in the UN General Assembly. But crossing the separation of powers and acting as executive diplomats pose real problems for incumbent members of Congress. They must decide how to balance their ongoing obligations in Congress with their executive-diplomatic obligations in the Assembly when the sessions between the two coincide. In the Assembly, as members of the USUN they must depend on its executive leadership to accept and use them as meaningful actors. And they must decide whether to articulate executive-determined foreign policies when these conflict with those of their own. However these problems were resolved, on the whole both executives and legislators associated with the USUN in the period 1946-1990 agreed that each benefits significantly from such congressional participation. Neverth...