UN Security Council transcript dataset covers 1946 to 2024

What the study found: The article presents a new machine-readable dataset of every available public transcript of the United Nations Security Council from 1946 to 2024. It includes over 160,000 speeches and more than 87 million words, with speaker identity, affiliation, and exact speaking order preserved.
What the authors say this matters: The authors say the dataset offers unprecedented historical depth and supports detailed analysis of how different actors articulate security concepts over time. The study suggests it can support research on global security norms, institutional discourse, and the link between language and international policy.
What the researchers tested: The researchers compiled the transcripts into a dataset and demonstrated its analytical potential with 3 illustrative applications using traditional text analysis and transformer-based text analysis. These applications examined the evolution of sovereignty, the change in human rights discourse after the Cold War, and institutional champions of the humanitarian turn.
What worked and what didn't: The abstract reports that the dataset spans almost eight decades and preserves granular information that enables detailed analysis. It also says the illustrative applications show the dataset's analytical potential, but it does not provide detailed comparative performance results for the text analysis methods.
What to keep in mind: The abstract does not describe formal limitations, and the article's claims are limited to what is stated in the summary provided. The described applications are illustrative rather than a full report of all possible analyses.

Key points

• The dataset compiles every available public UN Security Council transcript from 1946 to 2024.
• It contains over 160,000 speeches and more than 87 million words.
• The dataset preserves speaker identity, affiliation, and exact speaking order.
• The authors illustrate its use with analyses of sovereignty, human rights discourse, and the humanitarian turn.
• The abstract says the resource supports research on security norms, institutional discourse, and language in international policy.