TOWARDS A UNSC 2.0 WITH A DIFFICULT PATH AHEAD Between the Resilience Acquired During the Eighty Years of Existence And Today's Acute Need For Reform

The following narrative, through its analysis and final conclusions, doesn’t intend, in any way, to infringe upon the UNSC’s legitimacy, in the sense that “Legitimacy—the perception of audiences that an organization is normatively appropriate—is essential for any organization to achieve its objectives. Enhanced order, stability, and effectiveness are typical benefits associated with legitimacy, and these benefits accrue not only to international organizations but also to other public and private organizations.”[1] On the contrary, our demarche’s crux aims at strengthening the respective legitimacy, shedding light on means to increasing the Council’s efficiency and transparency, on the long- term path towards a UNSC 2.0, so that, in the end, this major UN body could effectively deliver “the public common goods” expected from it in accordance with the UN Charter, at global and regional levels, nationally, too, namely peace and security.  Implicitly, it is just such a purpose that would expect any objective observer in having a judgmental view on how the Council’s mandate it’s being accomplished and that given the reality that “often, this Council fails to deliver its mandate… The Council may not always live up to the hopes placed in it by people living in desperate circumstances in the crises on our agenda”.[2] [Immanuel Kant] said peace would either occur through human understanding or some disaster. He thought that it would occur through reason, but he could not guarantee it.[3] 

MOTTO:

“Peace is the central promise of the Charter of the United Nations and one of the principal global public goods the United Nations was established to deliver… To protect and manage the global public good of peace, we need a peace continuum based on a better understanding of the underlying drivers and systems of influence that are sustaining conflict, a renewed effort to agree on more effective collective security responses and a meaningful set of steps to manage emerging risks.”[4]

“In recent years, UNSC members’ competing interests have often stymied the Council’s ability to respond to major conflicts and crises, including Syria’s civil war, the COVID-19 pandemic, and Russia’s annexation of Crimea and subsequent invasion of Ukraine.” [5]

“I believe the UN's failure to act during the buildup to Russia's invasion on that cold February day is the greatest betrayal of the UN Charter in my lifetime.”[6]

“In the summer of 2022, as I prepared to become Ireland’s Ambassador to the United Nations, I watched the Security Council from afar. I questioned if Russia’s aggression against Ukraine might sound a death knell for diplomacy at that top table, already on shaky legs. I have seen the Council up close and personal. I have seen its flaws and that reform is overdue. But as I leave it, my conclusion is that it remains much too soon to write an obituary of the body… this is a Council that remains vital and where a small country can make a serious impact. Even amid aggression, it must continue to work.”[7]