How Many is Greater than Five: A Comprehensive Model Proposal for the United Nations Security Council

Abstract

The United Nations (UN) appeared as a regulator of the international system after World War II. The main purpose of the UN is to prevent war and conflicts. In realist perspective it was a holder of balance. In the post-Cold War world order, it has been widely criticized, especially the structure of the UN Security Council, which is composed of just five permanent states. The debates on reforming and reconstructing the UN Security Council came to the world's attention once again with the Arab Spring and Syria crises. This article firstly discusses the UN Security Councils structural problems, reform process and its competency in solving international conflict resolution. Then it moves into analyzing the reform proposals and new perspectives on the UN Security Council. The study emphasizes that the current structure of the UN Security Council is insufficient in conflict resolution, and structural reform required in the context of new international security agendas and norms. The paper argues that the structure and Charter of the UN at present cannot allow or adopt any reform proposals due to opposition from veto bearing members. In order to change the structure and decision making process of the Security Council, firstly the UN has to adopt a new Charter in terms of new future vision.

Keywords

• United Nations, Security Council, World Politics, Reform, and Cooperation