INDIA'S BID FOR A PERMANENT SEAT AT THE UNSC

The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) remains functionally historic, under an umbrella institutional design dating back to 1945. Composed of five permanent members known as “P5” members - United States, United Kingdom, France, China, Russian, and ten non-permanent members. The United Nation as organization was established aiming to create peace after WW2, to stop colonization and hawkish trade practices. But the UN and especially UNSC structure critically fails to reflect contemporary global distribution of power. India’s quest for a permanent seat, championed by the Group of Four (G4), commands strong political endorsement from four of the five incumbent P5 members (the US, UK, France, and Russia). However, this political support is strategically constrained by the procedural wall erected by the UN Charter. Any amendment to the Charter requires the ratification of all P5 members. This legal requirement provides a singular procedural lock for China, whose strategic opposition to empowering its regional rival serves as the primary and decisive impediment to India’s inclusion. The institutional rules, particularly the veto mechanism, were fundamentally designed to ensure institutional stability by protecting the incumbent great powers from structural change.