UN Security Council Reform: A Permanent Seat for Germany?

摘要

With the presentation of Kofi Annan's reform plan at the end of March, a phase of vital importance for the reform of the United Nations has begun. There is a broad consensus that a thorough reform of the UN is necessary in order to tackle the problems the world is facing at the outset of the twenty-first century. But although Mr Annan's plan contains a whole string of sensible and thoroughgoing reform proposals, it is the expansion of the UN Security Council which is almost exclusively discussed in public. The reason for that is evident enough: the Council's reform remains one of the most crucial issues; when the Council assumes a greater responsibility and consequently intervenes more than before in the internal affairs of states, its composition must reflect some international legitimacy. Meanwhile, virtually all UN member states share the assessment that the Council's present composition is unrepresentative and fails to reflect today's geopolitical realities. In September 2004, Japan, Germany, Brazil and India - four of the countries with the highest hopes of a permanent seat at the UN's new high table - allied to pool their endeavours. Regardless of the other candidates, this text will analyze the prospects as well as the problems of the German request.