Bribery at the UN
The Italy's UN Ambassador said that certain members of the UN seeking to reform the structure of the Security Council are engaged in blackmail to further their goal. Ambassador Marcello accused the G-4 (Germany, Japan, India, and Brazil) of "blackmailing some sector of the membership."
The G-4's reform plan entails enlarging the Security Council to 26 members and adding six more permanent seats to the current five (new members would not have veto power). The G-4 needs the support of the African Union in order to obtain the necessary 2/3 of the 191 member General Assembly to begin the Security Council reform process.
So would changing the current structure of the UN be good or bad? The answer is bad. Currently the members of the permanent UN SC reflect the concentration of raw military and economic power in the world (one could make the case for adding Japan and Germany to this equation). Without the support of the United States, China, Russia, France, and England maintaining effective and sustained military operation is virtually impossible. Expanding the SC would dilute the already marginal effectiveness of the organization. Already the act of passing effective resolutions is extremely difficult because of excessive deliberations. I do not see how adding more members would solve this problem.
There are many more arguments for and against expansion of the UN, and I will not delve into further detail.
Some resources for further reading:
Wikipedia
Global Policy
UN Website
Heritage Foundation
Presentation by the Brookings Institute
The G-4's reform plan entails enlarging the Security Council to 26 members and adding six more permanent seats to the current five (new members would not have veto power). The G-4 needs the support of the African Union in order to obtain the necessary 2/3 of the 191 member General Assembly to begin the Security Council reform process.
So would changing the current structure of the UN be good or bad? The answer is bad. Currently the members of the permanent UN SC reflect the concentration of raw military and economic power in the world (one could make the case for adding Japan and Germany to this equation). Without the support of the United States, China, Russia, France, and England maintaining effective and sustained military operation is virtually impossible. Expanding the SC would dilute the already marginal effectiveness of the organization. Already the act of passing effective resolutions is extremely difficult because of excessive deliberations. I do not see how adding more members would solve this problem.
There are many more arguments for and against expansion of the UN, and I will not delve into further detail.
Some resources for further reading:
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