UN Security Council Reform: Can This Gordian Knot Be Cut?

The UN Security Council’s failure to prevent Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has reignited long-standing demands to reshape the composition and framework of the world’s premier body for international peace and security. The impulse is understandable, given that nearly eight decades have passed since its inception with little council reform. But with President Joe Biden’s surprising endorsement last year of new permanent seats for countries from Africa and Latin America, as well as for Germany, Japan, and India, is there now a plausible pathway to expand the council and improve its performance?

Join Stewart Patrick, the director of the Carnegie Endowment’s Global Order and Institutions Program, for a discussion featuring Anjali Dayal, associate professor of international politics at Fordham University; Rohan Mukherjee, assistant professor of International Relations at the London School of Economics; and Sithembile Mbete, director of programs at the Johannesburg-based NGO, Futurelect. The four will draw on the findings of the latest Carnegie compendium, “UN Security Council Reform: What the World Thinks.”