How (Not) To Reform the Security Council?
Last week, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton, in his testimony before the House of Representatives, said the moment for the Group of Four had passed. Bolton’s recognition took the United Nations one step closer to reforming its most crucial organ and what comes next will depend greatly on how quickly and seriously the member states, including the United States, will start to consider the alternative proposals. The arrangements endorsed by Group of Four proposed additional permanent seats for Japan, India, Brazil, and Germany, plus two more permanent seats for Africa. The proposal has been debated and heatedly negotiated for the past nine months but it did not collect the support it looked for. It is time to move on to the other proposals. Why not more permanent seats? Group of Four’s proposal has failed to gather necessary support for two reasons. First, it was extremely divisive and evoked fierce opposition from the aspirants’ regional rivals such as China, Pakistan, M
