The United Nations General Assembly is facing a crucial choice on how to reform representation on the Security Council, so as to bring it into line with the realities of world politics today. Two very different models are proposed for this change, although both favour expanding current membership of the security council from 15 to 25. One would add a mix of permanent and renewable members, while the other rejects the idea of further permanent representation.
Those who support appointing further permanent members have made the pace in the debate so far. A resolution proposed by Germany, India, Japan and Brazil, supporting the principle of extra permanent members, has been circulated and may be tabled for a vote shortly - although it does not say who they should be. Unsurprisingly, these four powerful states all lay claim to permanent seats, even if they no longer insist on having a veto. They justify their case on grounds of equity, efficiency, and responsibility, taking into account the new realities of world power and regional influence.
This Group of Four (G4) has canvassed hard for its resolution although it looks as if it does not have enough support to gain the two-thirds majority of 128 states needed to carry the resolution in the General Assembly. And G4 solidarity will be tested by the US announcement last week that it favours adding "two or so" permanent seats without a veto, one of them being Japan, and "two or three" non-permanent seats. The US will propose its own specific criteria for candidate countries this week.
Pakistan, Italy, Indonesia, Kenya, Argentina and South Korea are prominent members of an alternative group opposing the extension of permanent membership. It is not difficult to understand why they should be hostile to it. The G4 proposal would empower neighbouring states indefinitely, conferring automatic regional leadership on them irrespective of how they actually deliver on that responsibility. The Security Council makes potentially fateful decisions for all the UN member-states and thus for humanity as a whole.
Ireland has been recognised by UN secretary general Kofi Annan as being committed to the organisation by his selection of the Minister for Foreign Affairs as one of five envoys to facilitate an overall UN reform package to be negotiated by September. But Dermot Ahern's work on this brief should not obscure Ireland's own interests in Security Council reform. The Government should not support the extension of permanent seats. This would create more problems than it would resolve, dividing the UN and creating resentment between neighbouring powerful states. Extending the number of regularly re-elected and renewable seats is the better way to ensure this round of UN reform can be a platform for further renewal. Ireland would also have a better chance of serving on the council under such a scheme. Like all states committed to the UN's role, it will have to earn its place there by effective representation.