Reforming The Un Security Council Membership

This book places the discussion on reform of the Security Council membership in the context of its primary responsibility at the helm of the UN collective security system.

This book, using an historical approach, provides a penetrating analysis of issues surrounding UN Security Council reform.

This volume comprehensively evaluates the current state and future reform prospects of the UN Security Council, providing the most accessible and rigorous treatment of the subject of reform to date. Apart from a couple of critical eyes in the academic community, few have asked the pertinent questions that this volume seeks to address: Will the enlargement of the Council constitute a reform? Could the inclusion of countries such as India, Germany, Japan, and Brazil markedly improve the Council’s agency? In response, this book focuses on: The Role and Agency of the UN Security Council The History of the Reform Debate An Expanded Council Working Method Reforms Enhancing Agency As the future of the UN Security Council continues to be the focus of fierce debate, this book will be essential reading for students of international relations, international organizations and international security studies alike.

“Key Documents on the Reform of the UN Security Council 1991-2019” brings together primary source documents reflecting the political, legal and academic discussions about reform of the United Nations Security Council, in particular its membership and decision-making. The collection objectively reflects the various positions of all participants, including governments, UN bodies, universities and think tanks.

Seminar paper from the year 2018 in the subject Politics - International Politics - Topic: Peace and Conflict Studies, Security, grade: 1, University of Catania (Department of Social and Political Sciences), language: English, abstract: The Security Council of the United Nations is criticized for failing to reflect membership reality of the United Nations and acknowledge rising powers in the global system owing to the post-Cold War configuration of the United Nations Security Council. The call for the reform of the United Nations Security Council is gaining momentum among members of the United Nations with different proposals emerging from different regional layouts and economic groupings. All the proposals advocate for additional seats (permanent and/or nonpermanent) in the Security Council. However, the reform proposals focus on two issues-membership and the right to veto in the Security Council. This article discusses United Nations Security Council reform proposals and the right to veto of the permanent members of the Security Council, revealing the unrealistic nature of the reform proposals. An alternative way of balancing the veto powers of the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council is attainable without having to create additional seats in Security Council.

Polemic Paper from the year 2018 in the subject Politics - International Politics - Topic: International Organisations, grade: 1,5, University of Innsbruck (Politikwissenschaft), course: Seminar---Internationale Beziehungen (Einführung), language: English, abstract: The United Nations Security council is a system with some deep implemented problems. Most important are the unproportionate representation of the United Nation’s members and the inequality of voting power of its permanent members. It is of every, but those five permanent members interest that these flaws are fixed. This paper elaborates three different approaches to do so for Austria. First, the removal of the permanent member status or at least its right to veto resolutions. Second, the withdrawal from the United Nations while forming a new supranational organisation. And last, the option to bide for a better opportunity to implement one of the other policies and to avoid negative consequences. There are positive as well as negative consequences to each of those policies which are discussed separately. Secluding this policy brief will come to the conclusion that the formal proposal is the best option for Austria at the moment.

The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) remains an important source of legitimacy for international action. Yet despite dramatic changes in the international system over the past forty-five years, the composition of the UNSC has remained unaltered since 1965, and there are many who question how long its legitimacy will last without additional members that reflect twenty-first century realities. There is little agreement, however, as to which countries should accede to the Security Council or even by what formula aspirants should be judged. Reform advocates frequently call for equal representation for various regions of the world, but local competitors like India and Pakistan or Mexico and Brazil are unlikely to reach a compromise solution. Moreover, the UN Charter prescribes that regional parity should be, at most, a secondary issue; the ability to advocate and defend international peace and security should, it says, be the primary concern.The United States has remained largely silent as this debate has intensified over the past decade, choosing to voice general support for expansion without committing to specifics. (President Obama's recent call for India to become a permanent member of the Security Council was a notable exception.) In this Council Special Report, 2009?2010 International Affairs Fellow Kara C. McDonald and Senior Fellow Stewart M. Patrick argue that American reticence is ultimately unwise. Rather than merely observing the discussions on this issue, they believe that the United States should take the lead. To do so, they advocate a criteria-based process that will gauge aspirant countries on a variety of measures, including political stability, the capacity and willingness to act in defense of international security, the ability to negotiate and implement sometimes unpopular agreements, and the institutional wherewithal to participate in a demanding UNSC agenda. They further recommend that this process be initiated and implemented with early and regular input from Congress; detailed advice from relevant Executive agencies as to which countries should be considered and on what basis; careful, private negotiations in aspirant capitals; and the interim use of alternate multilateral forums such as the Group of Twenty (G20) to satisfy countries' immediate demands for broader participation and to produce evidence about their willingness and ability to participate constructively in the international system.The issues facing the world in the twenty-first century--climate change, terrorism, economic development, nonproliferation, and more--will demand a great deal of the multilateral system. The United States will have little to gain from the dilution or rejection of UNSC authority. In UN Security Council Enlargement and U.S. Interests, McDonald and Patrick outline sensible reforms to protect the efficiency and utility of the existing Security Council while expanding it to incorporate new global actors. Given the growing importance of regional powers and the myriad challenges facing the international system, their report provides a strong foundation for future action.