Security Council Reform

Term Paper # 100212

International Relations
Political Science

An analysis of the proposed reforms for the United Nations security council.

1,524 words () | 6 sources | MLA | 2007 United States

Paper Summary:

This paper reviews the debate over the need for reform of the United Nations (UN) security council. It provides a history of the security council and discusses the proposed reforms. The paper argues that security council reform is both necessary and yet unlikely for the foreseeable future given the conflicting national interests of the current Veto-holding permanent members of the security council.

Table of Contents:
Introduction
The Origins and Structure of the Security Council
The Current Reform Proposals
Two-Track Reform and the Resistance to Change

From the Paper:

"In general, there exist two tracks or reform paths that are currently being pursued at the international level. The first of these is a proposal by the Group of Four (G4) countries (Japan, Germany, Brazil and India) that would give them, along with two African nations, permanent seats at the Security Council, with three new rotating memberships. This would expand the total membership of the Security Council to 25. The second was the more vague proposal, made by the Secretary Generals Panel of Eminent Persons in 2005, that did not endorse a specific plan but rather two general options for reform: (1) increasing the number of permanent and non-permanent members; or (2) enlarging the Council only with non-permanent members, but whose terms are longer than the current two year limit and who have the capacity to run for re-election (Crook 2005; Forman 2005)."

Sample of Sources Used:

Bruemmer, Emily. 2006. Join the club: Japan's Security Council bid. Harvard International Review. 28: 32-4.
Crook, John. 2005. US views on UN reform, Security Council expansion. The American Journal of International Law. 99.4: 906-908.
Forman, Johanna. 2005. Can reform save the United Nations? American Foreign Policy Interests. 27: 349-363.
Kegley, Charles. 2007. World politics: Trend and transformation. Toronto: Thomson Wadsworth.
Rivlin, Benjamin. 2005. The UN reform conundrum. American Foreign Policy Interests. 27: 365-384.