UN Security Council 101

The five new elected members of the UN Security Council are about to be trained on the Council’s agenda and how to be effective in that august body: Starting tomorrow afternoon (Thursday, 17 November) the current 15 members of the Council and the five new Council members (Azerbaijan, Guatemala, Morocco, Pakistan and Togo) who begin ...

By , a professor at Indiana University’s Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies.

The five new elected members of the UN Security Council are about to be trained on the Council's agenda and how to be effective in that august body:

The five new elected members of the UN Security Council are about to be trained on the Council’s agenda and how to be effective in that august body:

Starting tomorrow afternoon (Thursday, 17 November) the current 15 members of the Council and the five new Council members (Azerbaijan, Guatemala, Morocco, Pakistan and Togo) who begin their term on the Council on 1 January 2012 will participate in a two day workshop in a conference centre outside of New York City. Since 2003, this workshop for newly elected members called “Hitting the Ground Running” has been convened by the Government of Finland in cooperation with Dr. Edward C. Luck and the Security Council Affairs Division of the Secretariat.

This is a very worthy endeavor, and Edward Luck is as good a tutor on the Security Council as anyone could have. By most accounts, new Security Council members–many of whom have small UN missions–often have trouble getting up to speed quickly on the myriad issues the Council addresses. Still, with all that said, it’s hard not to smile at some of the wisdom that current Council members could offer their new colleagues. Some possible offerings:

–A session by India on how to blow your chances at a permanent Security Council seat in the space of a year.

–U.S. ambassador Susan Rice could speak on how to lecture the Security Council on responsibility without being at all certain that Congress will appropriate America’s annual UN dues. Alternatively, she could offer a seminar on how to find authorization for regime change in a resolution on protecting civilians. 

–China’s ambassador could expertly lead a session on appearing powerful while abstaining repeatedly.

–Bosnia’s ambassador could expound on how to manage conflicting voting instructions from three different presidents.

–Last but not least, as Brazil prepares to depart the Council, it seems only appropriate that China, Russia, India, and South Africa should reveal once and for all the location of the secret BRICS clubhouse, where their strategy for protecting beleagured dictators is refined. 

David Bosco is a professor at Indiana University’s Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies. He is the author of The Poseidon Project: The Struggle to Govern the World’s Oceans. Twitter: @multilateralist

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