Opinion

The UN needs to be more democratic

The United Nations has long been considered at best, ineffective; at worst, unfair. It has become very easy for developed nations to ignore or even disdain UN resolutions by claiming bias. On the other hand, developing nations have frequently complained about the UN’s inherently undemocratic nature. Whichever way you look at it, the UN is in need of reform.

For instance, the United Nations Security Council has always consisted of only five countries: the United States, China, France, the United Kingdom and Russia. The only time this changed was when Russia emerged from the Soviet Union, which also held a seat on the Council. Obviously, this does not live up to any standards of democratic decision-making — it certainly doesn’t reflect the multipolar world we live in today.

The world’s rising stars both in terms of economic performance and regional power are countries like Turkey, Brazil and India. Recently, they have sidestepped their rigid foreign policies to focus on the politics of the developed world. For instance, Turkey and Brazil’s nuclear fuel swap with Iran is the perfect example of the growing importance of these two countries. Despite the fact that Iran was branded as too controversial to deal with, Brazil and Turkey had enough autonomy to sign this incredibly significant agreement.

Brazil’s Arab-South America summit also raised a few eyebrows at the US State Department, as did former President Lula’s involvement in the Middle East peace process. Lula made it very clear that he challenged the US role in the peace talks, and it is unlikely the new president of Brazil will stray from his path.

Wikileak cables between US diplomats reveal that this arrangement is considered completely unacceptable. Because of this, Brazil’s campaign to gain a permanent seat on the Security Council among other influential countries like Japan and Germany has so far been spurned by the US, the most powerful Security Council member.

Why do these countries, ours included, insist on holding onto power, even though the dynamics between nations have clearly changed? People across the globe are leading revolutions and overturning classic geopolitics to gain their self-governance, and the only thing the Security Council cares about is keeping these countries marginalized.

In order for the UN to maintain any legitimacy, the Security Council must be reformed to represent the world as it is today.

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