Power Politics and the Locked-in nature of the United Nations Security Council: A view from Nigeria and India

Abstract

Almost eighty years after the creation of the UN very little has changed. While the organization has prevented global conflagrations as devastating as WWII, the world still suffers from incessant conflicts across continents. This has elicited a debate as to whether or not there is need for a reform of the UN's most powerful organ, the UNSC; and what manner of modification such a reform should take. The study shifts the debate to the practicality of such a reform in the first instance, particularly in the face of the diverse interests that conflict with each other, not just from those competing for a slot in the reformed UNSC, but also regional rivals and existing members of the Council? It is against this background that within the analytical purview of the realist theory and a qualitative methodology that relies heavily on secondary sources and primary sources sourced from declassified UN documents, the study uses the case study of Nigeria and India to investigate how power politics has ensured that the UNSC has remained unchanged after so many years. The study concludes that while these countries are prime candidates for the coveted position, realism suggests that they are unlikely going to become permanent members in the foreseeable future.