Structural Problems of the United Nations Security Council

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The United Nations Security Council was set up in order to uphold and enforce the utopian ideals of international peace and security. This essay will argue that the UNSC is hampered in its goal by structural issues that impede international cooperation efforts for collective global peace and security. One of the issues examined in this essay are the adaptive failures of the UNSC in response to both global shifts in international relations philosophy and changes in power structure and politics. Another issue that will be argued is the flaws within the composition of the UNSC, especially in its ideas of regional representation and its primarily undemocratic setup. This essay will also argue that the decision making process of the UNSC is flawed due to the veto power given to the P5 members of the Security Council allowing them to have the means to use the UN as a in pursuit of self-interests, and that the agent role fulfilled by the US and its allies also allows them to pursue national interests.

The United Nations was created in 1945 with the ratification of the United Nations Charter by the original 51 member states. ("Basic Facts About The United Nations" 3). This charter created the Security Council as the international body with the ‘primary responsibility [...] for the maintenance of international peace and security’ (9). It is the only branch of the UN that has the power to enforce its decisions upon the member states. Article 24 of the UN Charter names five permanent members in the UNSC representing the most powerful states of the time the UN was founded – The Republic of China, USA, UK, France and the Soviet Union. Although the Soviet Union and the Republic of China have collapsed since then, the UNSC operates by an inform...

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