United Nations Security Council

United Nations Security Council One of the six principal organs of the United Nations, based at UN headquarters in New York, whose prime responsibility is to maintain world peace and security. The Security Council, which first met in January 1946, consists of five permanent members (the USA, Russia, China, France, and the UK), and ten non-permanent members elected by the United Nations General Assembly for two-year terms on a rotating basis. With the changes in the economic and political balance of power since the end of the cold war, a change in the permanent membership to admit Germany, Japan, the EU, or other regional powers, is likely to come under discussion. The Security Council can investigate any international dispute, and recommend ways of achieving a settlement, including ‘enforcement measures’, such as sanctions, or the use of force by UN members (as, for example, in Somalia in 1992). It is also responsible for peacekeeping forces. Decisions taken by the Security Council require a majority of nine, including all five permanent members. This rule of great power unanimity, usually referred to as the right of veto, had been the cause of controversy. The effectiveness of the Council was improved after the collapse of the Soviet bloc in 1991. By 1992 it was felt by many, including the then Secretary-General Dr Boutros Boutros- Ghali, that its membership needed revision to recognize the current world power-structure. The proposal was advanced, in 1994, that permanent Security Council membership be doubled; Germany and Japan made especially strong representations for a permanent seat.