A New World Order

Context: Recently, the Prime Minister of India called out for the reforms in the United Nations of its “outdated structures”, leading to “crisis of confidence”. 

India’s credentials for UN-Security Council Seat:

• Promoter of rule-based international order.
• Staking claim as the world’s largest democracy.
• Contribution to the peacekeeping missions through UN forces.

Issues in the United Nations necessitating reforms: 

• Outdated Structures: The UN was born in the crisis of the World War era, and the realities of that time can hardly be compared to the present.
• Inadequate representation at the UN- Security Council: Veto has been provided to the US, the UK, France, Russia and later China.
• The UNSC does not include a permanent member from the African, Australian and South American continents,
• Pillars of the multilateral order, such as the G­4 group of Brazil, India, Germany and Japan, have been ignored for long.
• Deep polarization within the UN’s membership: 

• Frequent divisions within the UNSC P5 end up blocking key decisions. 

• The UN has chosen to “rollover” the discussions of the Inter-Governmental Negotiations (IGN), which are looking at ?ve major issues:
• Enlarging the Security Council, 
• Categories of membership, 
• The question of the veto that ?ve Permanent members of the UNSC wield, 
• regional representation, and redistributing the Security Council-General Assembly power balance. 

Conclusion: UNSC’s permanent members should recognize the deep peril the UN faces and support the reform process, an act that will require looking beyond their own interests for the greater good of the world.