As u.s. ambassador to the United Nations for special political affairs from 1993 to 1997, I had the not-always-scintillating experience of sitting through countless meetings of what was known as the Open-Ended Working Group on Security Council Reform.
The principal preoccupation of this committee was the important but politically thorny question of how to expand the 15-member U.N. Security Council to reflect today's global realities rather than those of 1945, when the U.N. was created. Currently, the five permanent seats on the Security Council are held by the major victors of World War II -- the U.S., Britain, France, Russia and China (each of which has veto rights) -- while the rest of the world rotates through the 10 nonpermanent seats.
Today, the reform effort that began more than a decade ago is still underway. As former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said two years ago: "No U.N. issue has been studied more with less to show for the effort than Security Council enlargement." Some have suggested that the committee I served on should have been called the Never-Ending Working Group.
But recently, a small window of opportunity opened for change -- and the U.S. should not allow it to slip away. At stake is the Security Council's long-term legitimacy and, by extension, its effectiveness. The window opened in March, when Secretary-General Kofi Annan called for a major overhaul of the U.N. to meet the threats and challenges of the 21st century. Annan made it clear that no plan would be complete without reform of the Security Council, which, he says, "lacks legitimacy in the eyes of the developing world." Others agree. The Economist put it bluntly: The council is "dominated by rich white nations."
Annan wants the council restructured so that it is more representative of the U.N.'s 191 members. (There were only 51 in 1945.) He has suggested two models for expanding the council from 15 to 24 members. One -- the leading contender -- creates six new permanent seats and three new nonpermanent ones; the other creates nine new nonpermanent seats. Annan wants a decision before September, when world leaders convene in New York.
The four leading candidates for new permanent seats on the Security Council are Japan, Germany, India and Brazil. All four will be key global players in the 21st century and certainly meet U.S. criteria -- they are all strong democracies with considerable economic status and large populations, and all make sizable contributions to the U.N.
