[lbo-talk] UN SC Expansion: An Idea Whose Time Has Come? (was Chomsky now at No. 1 on Amazon, No. 2 at Barnes & Nobl)

[Patrick Bond]

Yoshie Furuhashi wrote:
> If there is one idea on which a majority of governments of the world
> agree, it's the need to expand and change the UN SC, in which only the
> five major victors of WW2 are permanent members with veto power.  

I dunno Yoshie - a year ago an SC reform episode - involving six 
countries trying to get second-tier status of permanent membership 
without a veto - taught us a great deal about leadership... (From Talk 
Left Walk Right, 2nd edn:)

There was earlier opposition to Mbeki's Bantustan elite function by the 
African Union (AU), especially Robert Mugabe but also the heads of state 
of Algeria, Burkina Faso, Egypt, Kenya, Libya, Mali, Sudan, Uganda and 
Zambia. In August 2005, these leaders opposed a compromise entailing two 
African seats without veto rights, as well as seats for Germany, Japan, 
India and Brazil. In effect, Mbeki offered the AU a global neo- 
apartheid solution by which the new members would sit at the table but 
have infinitely less power than the five standing permanent members, who 
can exercise a veto on Security Council matters. It was not unlike the 
apartheid reform strategy proposed by PW Botha in 1983 (and rejected by 
the ANC and other activists) to dilute the power of the majority with 
differential citizenship rights.


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