The Argument: Three Procedural Steps

To understand why the UNSC has created only a few atrocities investigations, this Chapter focuses on the role of the UNSC procedure in decision-making. A decision by the UNSC is a committee process, which can only be concluded if the UNSC members overcome significant uncertainty and apprehension over each other’s preferences, and coordinate or cooperate towards a common outcome. The UNSC members are able to overcome these difficulties through the UNSC procedural rules, which allow the UNSC members to coordinate and cooperate, and thereby create an atrocities investigation. This Chapter explains how the UNSC’s procedure contributes to the creation of atrocities investigations, specifies the boundaries of this argument and presents the research design for the following chapters.