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The United Nations Security Council (or UNSC) is one of the most important global governing organisations built to maintain peace and stability within countries across the international system.
Established in the year 1945, the UNSC was built to ensure global peace and security among countries. The UNSC is also responsible for establishing international sanctions and authorising military actions.
Since its inception, the UNSC has governed the safekeeping efforts of many countries. Being an international organisation, the UNSC also has many countries as permanent and non-permanent members, out of which one is India as well.
The fundamentals of UNSC
As the objective of the United Nations Security Council is to ensure global peace and safekeeping, it also authorises the Council to probe into situations that could threaten world peace.
Recently, when the Russia-Ukraine war broke out, the UNSC passed resolutions to stop the war and demanded an immediate withdrawal of the Russian troops from Ukraine.
However, the UNSC makes these decisions after calling upon its other member nations, including India, which plays an important role in its running as well.
Apart from that, the UNSC reforms also include certain features and powers that make it one of the top governing bodies globally:
The UNSC can call upon its members to sever economic or other relations with countries that are posing a threat to international peace.
The UNSC can impose sanctions on different states in order to ensure peace peeking
The UNSC also has the ability to impose financial restrictions and penalties or even impose military action if required.
Composition of the UNSC
The United Nations Security Council consists of 15 members. These members include five permanent member states that include:
China
Russia
United States
United Kingdom
France
On the other hand, the non-permanent members are elected by the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA). Each of the ten non-permanent positions in the UNSC is distributed across different regions of the world. Out of each part of the world, one position is meant for the Eastern European countries, two for the Caribbean and Latin American countries. The remaining two positions are reserved for Western European and other countries as well.
Finally, in the African and Asian Pacific groups, the countries take turns every two years in order to put an Arab candidate.
These non-permanent members, as of 2022, include:
India
Brazil
Albania
Gabon
Ireland
Kenya
Mexico
United Arab Emirates
Norway
Ghana
All the non-permanent members are elected by the UNGA every year for a term of two years. India, in the group of non-permanent members, started its term on Jan 1, 2021, which will last till Dec 31, 2023.
India’s pursuit of United Nations Security Council reforms
Right from its election into the UNSC, India’s Perspective on the UN Security Council Reform has always been to promote responsible and unbiased solutions for the sake of international peace and integrity.
India’s pursuit of United Nations Security Council reforms brought a few approaches that include Respect, Dialogue, Cooperation, Peace and Prosperity.
With its support for UNSC reforms, India also laid the responsibility of working with innovative partners to ensure rapid development throughout the country. With the escalating global security challenges and the demand for a more practical approach, India’s pursuit perspective on the UN Security Council Reform aims towards ensuring peace throughout the world.
An example of the same could be seen back in 1996 when India piloted a draft, ‘Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism’, to provide a legal framework to combat terrorism.
India’s pursuit of United Nations Security Council reforms also includes:
Addressing terrorism issues
Capping the flow of terror finance
Strengthen the coordination with other multilateral forums
India’s permanent membership of the UNSC
For a long time now, India has been trying to get included in the list of permanent members of the UNSC.
Out of the claims raised by India to become a permanent UNSC member, here are a few:
India is the second-largest country in terms of population
India’s economy is growing significantly
India is a Nuclear weapons state
India is a huge contributor to the UN peacekeeping missions
India is also a representative of developing countries
Despite a large population and a growing economy, India still isn’t a permanent member of the UNSC.
Among the many hurdles faced by India in acquiring permanent UNSC membership, it seems that the objection from permanent members like China and the growing nuclear powers definitely pushes India away from its dream of becoming a permanent UNSC member.
Conclusion
Despite India contributing a lot towards the safekeeping of countries all over the world and supporting the UNSC reforms, it seems that getting permanent membership of the UNSC is not easy.
For India to have a permanent membership, India might have to fix its way with different UN countries to start getting the required votes.
For the new global orders laid by India to be considered, India might need to focus on the UN reforms as well. Maybe an expansion of the permanent five countries might also help India achieve that permanent position in the UNSC. It’s all a matter of time.
