Branding for business? Hungary and the sustainable development goals

Negotiations leading to the sustainable development goals (SDGs) have dominated the diplomacy of global development in the past years. The paper looks at the actions and motivations of a relatively new development actor, Hungary, which co-chaired the United Nations General Assembly’s Open Working Gr...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of international relations and development Vol. 23; no. 1; pp. 190 - 209
Main Authors Szent-Iványi, Balázs, Végh, Zsuzsanna, Lightfoot, Simon
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published London Palgrave Macmillan UK 01.03.2020
Palgrave Macmillan
Subjects
Alliances
Area Studies
Brands
Comparative advantage
Development Studies
Diplomacy
Diplomats
Influence
International Relations
Negotiation
Original Article
Political Science and International Relations
Political Science and International Studies
Sustainability
Sustainable development
Water
Hungary
Foreign aid
Post-2015
Small state influence
Sustainable development goals
Hungary
United Nations
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Summary:Negotiations leading to the sustainable development goals (SDGs) have dominated the diplomacy of global development in the past years. The paper looks at the actions and motivations of a relatively new development actor, Hungary, which co-chaired the United Nations General Assembly’s Open Working Group on SDGs, and thus had a highly visible position during the talks. Hungary had a key priority of having a SDG on water-related issues, driven mainly by its perceived comparative advantage in the sector. Using the insights of the literature on small state influence in multilateral negotiations, the paper argues that Hungarian diplomats used alliance building as well as reputational and framing strategies to counter the structural disadvantages of the country’s small state status, and were successful in shaping the final outcome. However, the Hungarian government did not act out of a strong commitment to sustainable global development, but rather used the forum to brand itself as an expert on water issues, with the hope of future business benefits.
ISSN:1408-6980
1581-1980
DOI:10.1057/s41268-017-0127-8