The Reform of the United Nations Security Council: Who will Bell the Cat?

“No reform of the UN will be complete without the reform of the Security Council”— Kofi Annan (Gould and Rablen:l46)

This paper charts the milestones in the oft demanded structural and functional reforms of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC). A body originally conceived as the guardian of international political stability, more than half century later, “the UNSC (still) remains the most authoritative institution on international peace and security issues”. The clarion calls for reform, since the last century, underscore the importance of the UNSC for the sustenance and legitimacy of rule-based international order. The 2005 World Summit outcome document states that, through reform the Council can be made “broadly representative, efficient and transparent and thus to enhance its effectiveness and the legitimacy and implementation of its decisions”.