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Like his shortsighted call to end the Senate filibuster, President Joe Biden stated in his Address the UN General AssemblyHis administration proposed reforms to increase the UN Security Council’s size and to add more permanent members with veto power to make it “more inclusive.”
Biden administration officialsThese reforms have been discussed for many weeks, apparently because Russia and China have used their veto power against U.S.-backed Security Council Resolutions on Ukraine, North Korea, and the Middle East. This proposal is unlikely to be supported by the majority of UN members and the international policy establishment.
The UN Security Council is made up of 15 members. Five permanent members of the UN Security Council are Russia, the U.S., France, China and the U.K. The 10 other members of the veto-power group are elected for two-year terms by regional blocs. U.S. U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas Greenfield, Ambassador to United Nations, recently called this arrangement “an untenable and obsolete status quo.”
BIDEN CALLS UN TO EXPAND PERMANENT SECURITY COUNCIL MEMBERS
Thomas-Greenfield proposes an expansion of the council, the addition of members, as well as informal restrictions on the use of the veto and a voluntary requirement that permanent members explain their vetoes before the UN General Assembly. These proposals, if implemented, could result in formal limits on the Security Council’s veto power and a way for General Assembly to override such vetoes.
Address by President Biden to the 77th session United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday, September 21, 2022 at U.N. Headquarters
(AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)
Unfortunately, the Biden administration is refusing to admit how important America’s Security Council veto has been to protect our interests and those of our allies in the council. Out of the 266 vetoes that have been cast, only 122 were granted. Russia and the USSR.The U.S. voted 82 times, most often in support of anti-Israel resolutions.
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The U.S. will continue to veto Security Council resolutions that are hostile towards Israel and the U.S., due to the hostility of many UN members. The Security Council veto also continues to serve an important purpose: preventing the five permanent members — all nuclear states — from passing resolutions against each other and promoting consensus.
This is not the first attempt by a presidential administration to undermine the UN Security Council’s veto. I was a CIA UN analyst during the 1990s and worked with Clinton administration officials that had their own ideas. But they failed because the other permanent member were willing to use their veto power against any changes to the council.
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Although Biden’s proposal to reform the UN Security Council is dangerous and radical, it is dead on arrival because it will be vetoed by China and Russia, who like the council the way it is. His Security Council reform proposal will accomplish further the global perception of the incompetence of the Biden administration’s leadership and foreign policy.
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