Will not be counted in your hours

Not a deliverable

Open ended  PSIR/GS2

Exhaustive?

Not minute details  exam relevant

“Our enemies are innovative and resourceful,
and so are we. They never stop thinking about
new ways to harm our country and our people,
and neither do we.” - George W. Bush

“When goods do not cross borders, soldiers

will.”? - Frederic Bastiat
UNSC and India
India and UN
• “whole-hearted cooperation” through full
participation “in its councils to which her
geographical position, and contribution towards
peaceful progress entitle her.”
A brief History of India’s association with the UN

28 June 1919 - Treaty of Versailles LoN

Declaration by the UN at Washington on 1 January 1942

UN Conference of International Organization at San Francisco ,1945.

Responsibilities and powers of the UNSC
Mediation, appointing special envoys,
dispatching a UN Mission or requesting the
UN Secretary-General to settle the dispute.

Ceasefire directives peacekeeping forces

and military observers dispatched.

Sanctions and financial penalties , arms

embargoed, and travel bans
Logic behind limited membership ?
 Issues • Global political imbalance
and
reforms • Regional imbalance Africa or
required? Latin Europe
What reforms are required?
• Structural Reforms  UNGA ‘Perilous interventions:
The Security Council and politics of Chaos’
• Transparency
• Veto Reforms  Korea & Gulf war
• Abolish
• Restrict the use
• Overriding power to UNGA.
• Reform difficult: Articles 108 and 109.
• Membership Reforms in UNSC
 UNGA - 1992 -
Resolution
47/62 entitled
UN- 69th
“The Question
General
of Equitable
Efforts towards Assembly on
1965 : 11  15 Representation In 1993, open ended Working Group :
UNSC reforms September 14,
and Increase in
2015 : IGN 
the
TBN
Membership
of the Security
Council.” .

the categories the criteria of

the future size
of membership, the veto power.
of the Council,
membership, and
Groupings G4 - Brazil, Germany, India, and Japan

Uniting for Consensus - Italy, Spain, Australia, Canada,

South Korea, Argentina and Pakistan

African Union (“Ezulwini Consensus”) 26 2,2.

ACT - Trans-Regional group of 21 states

L.69  developing countries from Africa, Latin America

and the Caribbean, Asia and the Pacific  42 members.
India’s Security Council Calculus

• Mahatma Gandhi : veto-wielding member

• Partition
• Nehru – 1950,1955 Cold war calculus
• “It would do us little good and it would bring a great
deal of trouble in its train….India, because of many
factors is certainly entitled to a permanent seat in the
Security Council. But we are not going in at the cost of
China.”
 “no reform of the
United Nations (UN)
is complete without
the composition of
the Security Council
changing to reflect
contemporary
realities of the
“an essay in
What India wants? twenty-first century.
persuasion”
This requires
expansion in the
membership of the
Security Council in
both the permanent
and non –
permanent
categories.”
India’s views on UNSC Reforms:
Categories of Membership  “balanced enlargement in both categories.”  Africa

Question of Veto The abolition of veto.

Regional Representation“an equitable geographical representation” “anachronistic” 3/5 from one region
Africa, Latin America, three-fourths of Asia including the Arab states, the entire Central and Eastern Europe, the
Caribbean states and the Small Islands Each regional grouping would endorse its candidate election in UNGA

Size of Council and Its Working Methods ‘we the peoples’ ;1945  2.35 billion 7.3 billion  1945 51  193
Realistic.

Relationship Between Security Council and General Assembly Not competitive or adversarial, but “one of synergy
and complementarity” UN objectives
Why India needs to be in UNSC?
• Kashmir “idealistic”realpolitik of Cold war
• ChinaPakistan
• status quo vs revisionist power moderately
revisionist global vision, without seeking to
overthrow the current international system.
• A ‘moralistic force’ of the so called Third
WorldKofi Annan
What are the basis of India’s demand for UNSC permanent
membership?
 Historic association

Intrinsic value and place in

A mix of three streams contemporary
international politics

Traditional great power in

Asia and beyond.
 India’s Intrinsic Value:
civilizational
legacy,
cultural
diversity,
political
GDP(2.87
Demography Territorial economic system and de’ facto
lakh crores
 one-fifth size, potential, past and NWS
USD (2019))
ongoing
contributions
to the
activities of
the UN
India’s Great Power Ambitions:
democratic
Middle alternative to
equalizer to Rule taker 
Kingdom vs the
China rule maker
Vishwaguru authoritarian
China
 What efforts India has made?
April , 2013 : “revisionist L-69  42
conclusion of integration” member
1979  into the
the IGN grouping of 2016 
Brajesh Security Global South
multi- process on developing Friends on
Mishra + Council forums such
layered 1990s UNSC countries UN Security
NAM  as G 77 and
strategy reforms by • Max UNGA from Asia, Council
UNGA  10 NAM
the 70th • Min UNSC. Africa and Reform
to 14
anniversary Latin
of the UN. America.
Challenges Uniting for Consensus (UFC)/Coffee Club
for India in
getting  1990s  Italy, Spain, Australia,
UNSC seat Canada, South Korea, Argentina and
Pakistan  China(not a member of UFC)

1993 : “…not just the financial contribution in

Financials  US$ absolute terms, but also in relative terms.
Low per capita income (IMF: 145th by GDP
20.46 million (nominal) and 122th by GDP (PPP))
Timely payment
23rd
Not static

readiness to fulfil the obligations and not the

quantum of payment
 Mukherjee and Malone
over-reliance on
Multilateral insufficient entitlement , not
diplomacy engagement realpolitik
bargaining
Sanjay Baru : G4

status quo bias amongst the existing P5

Why India should not pursue UNSC permanent
memebership?
• Psychological sense of ‘arriving’ on the global centre stage
• Veto power
• Israel  powerful, persuasive and progressive power  Around
50 anti-Israel UN resolutions- strengthened  in the
chessboard of realpolitik, power respects power UAE , Bahrain,
etc  Abraham Accords.
• Germany  successful narrative of a more ‘moral’ dimension 
contributes> Great Britain, France or Russia  de facto
• Japan  2nd  GDP (3rd, 4th )
• Creative multilateral options like ‘Quad’
Kishore Mahbubani:Latin America and Africa
Restructuring India’s traditional approach to UN

Delhi must come to terms with a number of propositions

• UNSC reform is unlikely to happen soon 50th ,1995.

• The UN is a lot more than the Security Council  Cold War decolonisation and
disarmament to a new international economic order.
• Priorities national interest over multilateralism territorial integrityinternationalise the
Kashmir  FATF  Article 2
• Look beyond the issues of peace  economic, technological and environmental
disruptions.
• Reshaping the global order  NAM.
• Moving centre of gravity.

Loosening the purse straps 0.7  China, Japan and the US are at 8, 10
and 22 per cent 1%.
 sahayog
(cooperation),

What after getting UNSC Seat?

India’s ‘Five S’ approach to the world: Jaishankar

Conclusions
• A legitimate claim  rightful place in
the comity of nations
• PM Modi “ Institutions that reflect
the imperatives of 20th century won’t
be effective in the 21st.”
• Prof Ramesh Thakur: NC
• A permanent seat in the UNSC is not
the only way to assert its ‘arrival’ on
the global centerstage.
Mock Question

A permanent seat in the United Nations Security

Council (UNSC) is neither necessary nor sufficient .
Discuss. (15 Marks)