Still far from a real UN Security Council reform?

Here’s a great analysis on the current situation surrounding the UN Security Council reform process. As the writer points, the two main factions are still far from a two-third majority vote required to reshape the Council’s membership… And much needs to be discussed on veto power!

New interaction between UN and regional organizations?

Source: BBC

In the space of two weeks in March, the United Nations authorised unprecedented interventions to protect civilians in Libya and Ivory Coast with dramatic results in both countries. For the BBC World Service, Claire Bolderson looks at how the UN came up with the resolutions and asks whether it is likely to do the same elsewhere.

How close is India to a Security Council seat?

Here is the analysis of Tom Wright on the pages of the Wall Street Journal:

India and Russia on Tuesday signed a number of economic and defense agreements, as Moscow moved to shore up its relationship with New Delhi, an old ally that also has been courted in recent months by the U.S., U.K., France and China. President Dmitry Medvedev arrived in India for two days of talks, making him the fifth and final leader from a nation with a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council to visit the South Asian country in 2010.

New momentum for UN Security Council reform?

Source: Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) | by Stewart M. Patrick

U.S. President Barack Obama’s surprise announcement of support for India’s permanent membership in the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) is a bold foreign policy stroke. Beyond deepening the U.S.-India strategic partnership launched by the Bush administration, it may help break the logjam that has kept the UNSC’s permanent membership mired in the world of 1945.

Think again, G20 sceptics

Source: The Guardian

Kofi Annan*, Amartya Sen** and Michel Camdessus*** believe that “the world’s leaders can give Pittsburgh a truly global vision – if they address four key issues.”

Reforming summit diplomacy

Source: By David Shorr, Alan S. Alexandroff, and Andrew F. Cooper* | TPM

Last month, an annual ritual of high-level diplomacy was convened in L’Aquila, Italy by a group familiar to most of us: the Group of Eight leading industrialized powers (or G-8). More accurately, these world leaders held a series of summits within a summit. The G8 met on the first day, then the G-14, G-17, and G-16. Because some leaders were included in only one of these combinations, a total of 24 presidents and prime ministers passed through L’Aquila.

US and China kill British proposal for UN Security Council reform

Source: The Washington Post | By Colum Lynch

Having invited the foreign ministers of the four other permanent Security Council nations to London to discuss enlarging the 15-nation council, Britain on Monday called off the Wednesday meeting after U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and China’s foreign minister declined to attend, according to key U.N. members.

Talks on Security Council expansion to begin in earnest

Source: United Nations

On-going work on reshaping the size and membership of the Security Council and making the vital organ of the world body more democratic is finally heading for serious negotiations, the Ambassador to the United Nations for Afghanistan, Zahir Tanin, told the press on Monday.