From: wolda002@umn.edu
Date: Tue Feb 09 2010 - 23:49:49 EST
For any real results, the Security Council must allow new powers their own
piece of the pie
UN Security Council: a relic of the past
By: Sammy Halabi, Staff Writer
Posted: 2/4/10
The funny thing about history is how often it hinges on decisive moments.
Looking back, there exist turning points and decisions that define our
present; things in the past that dictate our future. And as these moments
pass, and their legacies are carried forward, they become normalized and
internalized. We take for granted what the world is because to us it has
always been that way.
Thus, the victors of wars have decided the shape of this anarchical sphere
we call the global system. As the United States, the United Kingdom,
France, and the Soviet Union emerged victorious from the horrors of the
Second World War, they went to work shaping the world that we live in
today. Like their forefathers nearly three decades earlier, the victors
opted for a global institution of states, and named it the United Nations.
This time however, the powers clearly imposed themselves atop the
international system, while also granting themselves permanent seats on the
premier decision-making body, the Security Council. This included the power
to veto any real results.
Now forgive me for that brief recap of 20th century post-war integration,
but understand that the status of the veto states is crucial to our
recognition of just what undermines the UN today. In 1945, the only way to
truly provide any legitimacy to the UN was to have the five most powerful
countries in the world join as members. Yet, in a world where states seem
to act in a purely self-interested manner, and the eternal struggle between
state sovereignty and supra-state authority reigns supreme, the only way to
incentivize membership was to give these states extraordinary power.
And it worked. Out of this new spirit of interconnectedness and cooperation
emerged the Marshall Plan and OECD, the IMF and the World Bank. While our
world has never truly been stable - and the UN certainly has its
shortcomings - we have established norms against genocide and an avowal to
fundamentally protect human rights.
But the world we live in today is very different than that of 1945. Today's
global system is dominated by superpowers, emerging powers, regional
powers, and powers that have yet to be categorized. The foci of world
politics are diffusing to Beijing, Brasilia, New Delhi, and Jakarta. New
players want a piece of the pie, and with declining birth rates in the West
and rapidly growing economies in the East, why wouldn't they? If our
current economic crisis has shown us anything, it is that the
"international community" is now the realm of the G20, not the G8. Like it
or not, something's got to give.
We have become so accustomed to a Western-dominated globe that we have
neglected to recognize how fundamentally the world has changed. As polarity
multiplies and divides itself among these new powers, we realize that our
most important institutions, with the UN as a prime example, must adapt.
If we hope to accomplish anything, we must come to include emerging world
players. A complete abolishment of veto status is unlikely. However, a
modest reform is a more likely alternative. Allow the five permanent
members to hold a quasi-veto status where two veto votes are required to
shoot down proposals and resolutions. Expand the Security Council to
include more regional powers and create the power to override vetoes, so
long as the opposition to the veto exceeds a certain proportion of votes
that indicates overwhelming consensus (which I will not attempt to guess
at, but would likely need to be at least two thirds majority).
This proposal is by no means a perfect fix, but it addresses the key issue:
an institution that purports to represent the external world must
internally reflect its constituency. No longer will the world sit idly by
and allow five states to hold the rest ransom, not when there are players
on the sideline ready for a shot at a leading role.
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