South vs. South

Brazil formally introduced the Group of Four (G4, the other three are Germany, Japan and India) proposal for UNSC reform yesterday.

The proposal from Brazil, Japan, Germany and India would expand the council from 15 to 25 members, adding six permanent seats without veto power and four non-permanent seats. Those four each want a permanent seat, with the other two earmarked for Africa.

Only to have it shot down by other developing nations.

Opponents of the idea retorted with their argument: that the so-called Group of Four's bid is nothing more than a bid for power.

"The seekers of special privileges and power masquerade as the champions of the weak and disadvantaged, asserting that the special privileges that the seek would make the council more rep and neutral," said Pakistan's U.N. Ambassador Munir Akram.

Akram is a leading proponent of an alternate proposal, from a group calling itself "Uniting for Consensus." Their proposal would add only non-permanent members who would face periodic election.

Although the G4 proposal is backed by 20 other nations including France, key disputes from the developing world, not the developed world, are holding it back. I think this shows that while developing nations are willing to allow Brazil to stand up for them in the short term, they also realize that world politics could change over the coming decades and they don't want to create a system that eventually hurts them.

Besides the G4 and "Uniting for Consensus" proposals, the US has proposed adding two permanent seats including Japan and the AU wants six permanent seats with veto power, which seems highly unlikely.