Does CFSP co-ordination foster convergence? Voting behavior on nuclear weapons at the UN General Assembly

Although the European Union (EU) has sought to promote the approximation of the foreign policy positions of member states since it established its Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) with the Treaty of Maastricht in 1992, the impact of this intergovernmental forum has long been questioned. Recent developments putting the CFSP under strain such as the weakening transatlantic link, Russian attempts to undermine EU foreign policy unity, and the rise of Eurosceptic populist parties call for a reassessment of its convergence-fostering effect. We investigate convergence by looking at EU voting behavior on resolutions on nuclear weapons—a controversial area due to deep divisions among member states—at the United Nations General Assembly from 1979 to 2022. We show that while convergence among CFSP participants hardly increases, the level of consensus remains stable, in a departure from the theoretical expectations of mainstream accounts of EU foreign policy.