Sovereignty in the balance: Claims and bargains at the UN conferences on the environment, human rights, and women

States vary the content and subject matter of their claims to sovereignty. In an analysis of when states invoked sovereignty at recent UN World Confer ences on the environment (1992), human rights (1993), and women (1995), the authors revise and extend Litfin's (1997) notion of bargains among compone nts of sovereignty. At the conferences, states invoked sovereignty in debat es over cultural and religious values, economics, and increased internation al accountability. The authors interpret the debates based on how four elem ents of sovereignty-autonomy, control, and legitimacy in the eyes of other states and nonstate actors-are traded by states through implicit or explici t bargaining. They identify patterns that vary by issue area. The authors a rgue that nongovernmental organizations as well as other states may legitim ate or delegitimate states' sovereign claims. They find that countries of t he global South made more sovereignty claims of all kinds than Northern sta tes. And, sovereignty bargains may be struck more easily over power and eco nomics than social values.