U.S. Gets the Ball Rolling on Expanding Security Council

After a crucial push from the United States, the U.N. is about to tackle the tough issue of expanding the 15-member Security Council, the most powerful single agency in the world body.

If the changes go through, Germany, Japan and three or more nations from the developing world will join the U.S., Britain, China, France and Russia as permanent members of the council. The result, supporters say, would be a group more reflective of today’s balance of power and more authoritative in its efforts to maintain global law and order, especially in dealings with unstable developing countries.

But the risk is that the power of authoritarian, anti-democratic states within the U.N. would increase and the influence of the U.S. diminish.

Bill Richardson, the U.S. envoy who has propelled the process forward by supporting the expansion, faces delicate negotiations, trying to balance a continued strong American hold on the council with the rising aspirations of the Third World. He views the challenge with characteristic optimism. “We’re going all out to get [Germany and Japan] on the Security Council,” he said here before a 10-nation trip to cultivate support for council changes and other U.N. reforms.

“There seems to be some movement on the Security Council reform issue. Our position has ignited some movement,” he said, but he added: “I’m not sure what the final [outcome] will be.”

While the U.N. is made up of 185 countries, each with an equal vote in the General Assembly, the real seat of power is in the Security Council. And, to paraphrase George Orwell, in the Security Council, some countries are more equal than others, for the five permanent members are endowed with veto power over any council action.

When the U.N. goes to war, as in the Persian Gulf, or parachutes peacekeepers into an international hot spot like the Balkans, or tosses out one secretary-general and picks another, or slams down economic sanctions on a renegade state such as Libya, it does so through the Security Council.

The problems and questions associated with restructuring the council are formidable, but diplomats here believe that the chances of pushing changes through the General Assembly are better than ever. Changes must be approved by a two-thirds majority of the General Assembly and all five permanent council members.

The U.S. goal is to win agreement on a framework for council expansion by year’s end and postpone until later some of the toughest decisions, including which developing countries get to join Germany and Japan as new members and whether any get veto power.

The biggest complaint about the existing council lineup is that it represents a bygone era, a club for the victors of World War II.

Giving Germany and Japan permanent status, backers say, would recognize their economic and diplomatic clout. And adding developing countries would grant recognition to the emerging importance of nations such as South Africa, Egypt, India and the “economic tigers” of Southeast Asia.

But the tricky part comes in deciding which developing countries--many of which are ruled by authoritarian regimes--should join.

The U.S. proposal is to let developing countries sort out representation among themselves and, as that grows clear, to decide the veto question. But there are competing plans, and a bloc of nations opposes big changes in the council makeup.