UNSC Reform: Making Room for Brazil

The Internationalist has some new summer reading for you, hot off the press! Today CFR released Global Brazil and U.S.-Brazil Relations—the final report of a Council task force chaired by former World Bank president James D. Wolfensohn and Samuel W. Bodman, former secretary of energy. The report chronicles Brazil’s dramatic rise over the past decade—and its potential to become a major global player. Kudos to my good friend and colleague Julia Sweig, director of the Council’s Latin American program, for shepherding this timely document to completion.

The report’s most striking recommendation is that the United States should support Brazil’s candidacy for a permanent seat on the UN Security Council (UNSC)—something that President Obama shied away from doing during his February 2011 trip to Brazil. I’ve wondered whether Brazil is ready for prime time in the past, for three reasons that have consistently dogged Brazil’s aspirations:

Furthermore, incorporating Brazil onto the Security Council would be a symbolic and practical step in devaluing the utility of nuclear weapons in world politics, by showing that a country can attain the inner sanctum without pursuing the world’s most destructive devices. Consistent with its constitution, the country remains a non-nuclear weapons state.

The Task Force is, however, divided over the timeframe for integrating Brazil onto the Security Council. Though some members call for immediate U.S. endorsement without qualifications, I would agree with their colleagues that recommend gradually laying some groundwork for what will inevitably be a complex diplomatic process.

In a CFR Special Report issued last December, Kara C. McDonald and I argue that President Obama should spearhead an enlargement of the UNSC’s permanent membership to correspond to contemporary power realities. However, the United States must be confident that new permanent members are prepared to accept the obligations of membership, and not just the privileges.  (After all, as my friend Ed Luck, formerly of the International Peace Institute, is fond of saying, “permanent is a fairly long time”). Candidate countries, including Brazil, must meet certain threshold criteria, and the process should unfold gradually to give prospective aspirants a chance to demonstrate their bona fides.