United Nations Security Council: Encyclopedia II - United Nations Security Council - Membership reform

United Nations Security Council - Membership reform

There has been discussion of an increase in the number of permanent members. The countries who have made the strongest demands for permanent seats are Japan, Germany and India. Indeed, Japan and Germany are the UN's second and third largest funders, respectively, while Germany and India are among some of the largest contributors of troops to UN-mandated peace-keeping missions.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan asked a team of advisors to come up with recommendations for revamping the United Nations by the end of 2004. A proposed solution is to increase the number of permanent members by five, which, in most proposals, would include Japan, Germany, India, Brazil (known as the G4 nations), one seat from Africa (most likely between Nigeria and South Africa), and/or one seat from the Arab League. On September 21, 2004, the G4 nations issued a joint statement mutually backing each other's claim to permanent status, together with an African country. France and the United Kingdom declared that they support this claim. Currently the proposal has to be accepted by two-thirds of the UN General Assembly which translates to 128 votes.

Japan is the second largest contributor to the U.N. regular budgets. Its payment even surpasses the sum of those of the United Kingdom, France, the People's Republic of China and Russia. Japan has been one of the largest ODA donor countries. Thus Japan is considered the most likely candidate for one of the new permanent seats.

Japan's eagerness to become a permanent member of the UN Security Council has met with strong opposition from many East Asian countries, specifically the People's Republic of China, South Korea and North Korea. Mongolia has backed Japan's bid however ([1]). There have been large-scale anti-Japanese protests in both mainland China and South Korea. Although they associate their movements with Japan's past, others speculate that these countries, especially the PRC, are motivated by more current problems such as territorial disputes. In late April 2005, large anti-Japan protests broke out in mainland China. The reasons for the protests are varied, but include tensions between Japan and China over the future of the Security Council. While the protests were not officially sanctioned by the PRC, some analysts suggested that the PRC government allowed the protests to proceed in order to upset Japan's bid to be added to the Security Council. Others still argued that the Chinese government did not want the protestor's anger to be focused on them, as preventing these demonstrations would be construed as supporting Japan. However, the PRC government then forbade further protests when it became concerned that such protests might become more about domestic issues.

Many other Asian nations have expressed strong support for Japan's application. Japan's backers in the region include Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines and Vietnam. Other countries such as Australia, Brazil, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom also back Japan's bid.

Although the United States strongly supports Japan's bid for Security Council membership, it rejects the combined G4+one bid for membership as a whole, which Japan needs to keep its support. Similarly, China wants to keep Japan from getting permanent status. Both veto holding countries could seriously jeopardize Japan's chances. While Russia is interested in a local counterweight to China, it is also wary of Japan's strong ties to the USA.

Germany is the third largest contributor to the U.N. regular budgets, and as such, believes it has a strong claim to a Security Council seat behind Japan.

France has explicitly called for a permanent seat in the UN for Germany: "Germany's engagement, its ranking as a great power, its international influence—France would like to see them recognised with a permanent seat on the Security Council", French president Jacques Chirac said in a speech in Berlin in 2000. The former German Chancellor, Gerhard Schröder also identified Russia, among other countries, as a country that backed Germany's bid. Italy and Netherlands on the contrary, suggest a common EU seat in the Council instead of Germany becoming the third European member next to France and the UK. The former German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer said that Germany would also accept a common European seat, but as long as there is little sign that France and the UK will give up their own seats, Germany, a much larger country, should also have a seat. Thus, the German campaign for a permanent seat was intensified in 2004. Former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder made himself perfectly clear in August, 2004: "Germany has the right to a seat". Its bid is supported by Japan, India, Brazil, France, the United Kingdom and Russia, among other countries. Current German Chancellor, Angela Merkel has given no comment yet on the subject.

India, a nuclear power, represents approximately a sixth of the world's population and is therefore the world's largest democracy. It is also the world's fourth largest economy in terms of Purchasing Power Parity and maintains the world's second largest armed force. Its bid is unequivocally backed by permanent members France, the United Kingdom, and Russia.

Though initially opposed by the People's Republic of China due to geo-political reasons (China being an ally of India's arch-rival Pakistan and the country also having fought a brief war with India in 1962), recent history has turned China's official support for India's candidature from negative to neutral to positive. On April 11, 2005 China announced it would support India's bid for a permanent seat, but without a veto. Although the US officially does not back India's bid - for various reasons, some of which remain decidedly unclear - it has privately been eager to work with India and to support the nation (which translates to not using a veto). Taking into account its huge population and growing economic and political clout, India is a strong contender to clinch a permanent seat. Another factor which bolsters India's candidature is the fact that it was one of the founding members of the Security Council and has participated in several of its activities, including UN operations in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Cyprus, Cambodia, Yemen, Somalia, Rwanda and Namibia, among others.

Brazil's bid for a permanent seat on the Security Council are boosted for a number reasons:

• Brazil recently received strong indications that the United States was willing to support its membership; albeit, without a veto.
• It is a member of the G4 nations alliance (including Germany, India and Japan). Every G4 country supports a permanent seat bid for each of the other three (whilst each has strong claims to a seat independently).
• It is the largest country in Latin America in terms of population and land area.
• It has received backing from other countries such as Russia for a permanent seat.

There are obstacles which stand in the way for Brazil however:

• Brazil lacks a significant Spanish speaking population (14%), of which the rest of South America has in a significant majority.
• Brazil may have to be satisfied with sharing a permanent seat with Argentina.

Since the collapse of the Ottoman Empire the predominantly Islamic Middle East has been an area of persistent international conflict, and the periodic flare-ups in the region have been the subject of many UN security council debates and resolutions. Therefore, the prospect of introducing a permanent Islamic member to the security council is highly sensitive, especially if such a member were to be granted the power of veto.

Outside the Muslim world, commentators from mainly the United States, have raised concerns that an empowered Islamic member could wield its veto to restrict the UN's ability to act forcefully in the Middle East or on the boundaries of the Islamic world (e.g. Kashmir and Chechnya), rendering the UN impotent in those regions. The lack of democracy in Middle Eastern states that are predominantly Muslim is another reason cited by some Western commentators who argue against the idea of including these countries in the club of permanent, veto-wielding states.

At the same time, the draft G-4 reform proposals may leave over 1.6 billion Muslims worldwide without any permanent representation on the UN security council. This is a highly controversial issue within the Islamic world and would adversely impact the UN's credibility in the hotspots of the Middle East and in the Islamic world. In June 2005, the foreign ministers of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) called for a permanent Muslim seat on the UN Security Council.

Recent resistance to the reform draft proposals emanating from the G-4 states can be attributed in part to this highly sensitive issue. The US and several Western states have objected to any proposal that gives new members any veto powers, and within the African Union, Egypt has led resistance to a proposal by Nigeria to adopt a version of the G-4 proposals that removes the right of veto for new members, and may enable the creation of a reformed council that does not have any permanent members with a predominantly Muslim identity.

Currently, no country in Africa has a permanent seat on the Security Council and this is seen as a major reason behind the push to have an African nation be given one. There are indeed several popular reasons why Africa has a good chance of gaining a Security Council membership:

• Africa is the second-largest and second most populous continent behind Asia (in which, China already has a seat and Japan and India are petitioning for ones).
• Africa has more United Nations members than any other continent.
• Africa, as a whole, is seen as non-threatening.
• It currently has the support of most of South America and India (the South-South Alliance) and Japan of the G4 nations. There are also calls by the UK and France for more political representation from Africa.

Although no one nation from Africa has formally been put forward as a candidate for membership on the Security Council, South Africa and Nigeria are seen as the stronger choices. South Africa has the largest and best developed economy on the continent and Nigeria is the most populous country. It is also becoming one of the faster growing nations in the world due to its vast oil reserves.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Membership reform", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki