(As part of the project that I did with the United Nations Association of Singapore (UNAS), I wrote 7 essays concerning various aspects of the UN and the international system. This is essay 1 out of 7)
Section 1 (The UN System)
Q3. Outline briefly the membership structure of the UN Security Council. Do you think representation in the Security Council is equitable? If "Yes" why? If "No" why?
By Linus Wong, National Junior College
With the conclusion of the cataclysmic events of the Second World War, there was an urgent need for an organisation that could actively prevent armed conflict from once again plunging states into war and the innocents into the abyssal chasm of death. The United Nations Security Council was engendered as a body that could maintain international security and peace as well as to respond quickly to challenges and crisis. The failure of the League of Nations, the UN’s predecessor, to preserve and strengthen peace and cooperation between nation-states was thus the catalyst for the creation of a body in the United Nations that could safeguard the global framework of peace.
Membership in the current United Nations Security Council stands at 15 member states, 5 of which are permanent members holding veto power. The 5 permanent members were the major Allied powers that brought about the end of the Axis and the restoration of a modicum of global peace. The United States of America (USA), the United Kingdom, France, China and the Soviet Union (currently the Russian Federation) took the helm of the Security Council as the victorious nations of the Second World War.
The other 10 non-permanent members are meant to give this body global representation, with a specific amount of seats allocated for each regional and geographical bloc. They are elected for two year terms by the General Assembly, with five replaced each year. The African bloc chooses three members, whilst the Latin America and the Caribbean, Asian, and Western European and Others blocs choose two members each, and the Eastern European bloc selects one member. In addition, one of the 10 non-permanent members is an Arab nation, coming from either the African or Asian bloc.
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| United Nations Security Council |
Although some might argue that the Security Council has an equitable representation based on the fact that the planet’s most powerful nations are permanently represented in it, with an allowance for a global representation in the Council, this concept is rather fundamentally flawed. Thus, we can see that there are two main contentions with the issue of equitable membership in the Security Council, a) it does not accurately reflect the changes in the global power structure and b) it is not representative enough due to the underrepresentation and omission of certain geographical regions.
Taking into consideration how the balance of power has shifted since the conclusion of the Second World War, the number of permanent members which supposedly reflects the great powers of Earth, do not take into account the rise of new powers or the rehabilitation of old ones onto the global stage. The defeat of Germany and Japan in World War 2 relegated them to the ranks of second or even third-rate powers, and their international credibility and prestige was further tainted by their wartime attitudes and actions. However, Germany and Japan have reasserted their presence on the global arena. These two nations are the 3rd and 4th largest economies in the world. They only fall behind the USA in terms of their financial contributions to the UN. Furthermore, they have participated actively in the various peacekeeping missions that the UN partakes in. These two powers play a significant role in international relations, with Japan being a major nation in East Asia and the Asia-Pacific region, and Germany being the dominant nation within the European Union and Europe as a whole. Thus, their exclusion from the privileged club of victorious nation states is a gross sign of the lack of equitability in the council. They have long forsaken their wartime past and have become fully integrated, participating and contributing members to the international community. Their absence from the league of permanent members thus brings into serious scrutiny into how the Security Council thus not accurately reflect the balance of power amongst nations.
The rise of new powers such as Brazil and India are another major issue. Brazil and India are seen as leaders of Latin America and South Asia. Although both of them face problems in gaining recognition as a leader from regional states (Brazil being the only Portuguese speaking nation in a region where most nations speak Spanish and the conflict within the India-Pakistani relationship), they are significant economic powers both regionally and internationally. In addition, they have a large populace, with India’s being more than a billion. The problem of a lack of sufficient global representation in the permanent members of the Security Council leads us to further question why Brazil and India are not amongst the permanent members. There is no permanent Latin American member, and despite Asia having more than half of the world’s population, only 1 out of the 5 permanent member seats belongs to an Asian nation (the People’s Republic of China).
Furthermore, there is the conspicuous dominance of Western powers in the Security Council, with 4 of the permanent members being Western nations and 3 of the non-permanent members being European. In total, this means that Western nations form nearly half of the Council’s membership. In addition, despite the Council’s work focusing very much upon events in Africa, no African nation has permanent membership in the Council. There is also no Muslim nation amongst the permanent members despite the fact that the Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia are home to several major world conflicts and hold much of the world’s populace.
I have long held the personal belief that the G4 nations (Germany, Japan, Brazil and India) should have at least permanent membership in the Council. To solve the problem of the lack of global representation, perhaps key regional groupings such as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the African Union (AU), the Organisation of Islamic States (OIS), the Organisation of American States (OAS) and the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) should be awarded membership in the Council.
However, in any reform to make the Council more equitable in terms of its membership, one must take into account two key factors. There will always be this eternal conflict between efficiency and equity. Having more members in the Council would probably delay any decisions the Council can make and thus hamper its responsiveness towards crisis, the raison d’etre of its existence. However, to limit the membership of this body to only 15 members would mean that the decisions that are made lack global consensus and a lack of global participation. Thus the United Nations is faced with this Gordian knot. To keep the Council exclusive raises the question of equitability and fairness of the UN as a global institution, but widening its membership might make it too unwieldy to function effectively. My opinion stands that the Council should try to incorporate more members so as to make the decision making process more global and equitable, but the Council should not be rendered ineffective in solving the many global challenges that exist. After all, the UN was set up to protect the rights of humanity and to safeguard the common interest. If it fails in doing so, regardless of how equitable a representation there is in the Council, the main purpose of the UN would have already been hurled into the trash bin of history.
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Current 10 non-permanent members of the UN Security Council:
Africa:
- South Africa
- Gabon
- Nigeria
Latin America and the Caribbean:
- Brazil
- Colombia
Asia:
- India
- Lebanon (also representing the Arab bloc)
Western Europe and Others:
- Germany
- Portugal
Eastern Europe:
- Bosnia and Herzegovina
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