UN Security Council Reform: Is it Time?
from The Internationalist and International Institutions and Global Governance Program

UN Security Council Reform: Is it Time?

Blog Post by Stewart M. Patrick
January 11, 2012 4:53 pm (EST)

More on:

International Organizations

Check out the new Internationalist video series, which we’re launching today. This weekly series will feature brief, but in-depth analysis of multilateral cooperation in the news, or pressing issues that are flying under the radar.

In the first show, I discuss the impetus to reform the UN Security Council, which has remained “frozen in amber” since the end of World War II despite huge shifts in the global distribution of power over the past fifty years.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25nHLC6UbD8

But while it’s clearly outdated, is it time to reform it? Watch the video to explore the arguments for and against changing its structure. Some questions I answer in it are:

  • Why is the argument based on the need for regional representation misguided?

  • How could UN Security Council reform help the United States achieve its foreign policy goals?

  • Which countries would battle the move to reform the Council, and would they succeed?

In the end, I place a wager on the near future of UN Security Council reform. I invite you to join the conversation and place your own bet below.

More on:

International Organizations