BeIR/webis-touche2020 huggingface dataset:
It would make the UNSC more effective and efficient

The rationale for expanding PM is strong. To be effective and legitimate, UNSC as the guarantor of international peace and security must reflect the contemporary distribution of power to ensure the political support and resources of the world's most capable states.[[http://on.cfr.org/rp1fJV]] As UNSC membership is much coveted there is much infighting within regional groups as to which countries qualify for membership.[[ A.J.I.C.L. 288-292 (2006)]] With the removal of PM and elections of all UNSC members this fight would intensify resulting in protracted stalemates. Failure to timely compose the UNSC would paralyze the operation of UNSC and undermine its credibility. For example, failure of Guatemala and Venezuela to secure a majority in the General Assembly after 48 (!) rounds of voting in 2006 led to the election of a compromise candidate. [[http://bit.ly/pKekGL]] Removal of PM would heighten the risk of such stalemates as all members would have to face such election hurdles at frequent intervals. To be effective UNSC needs compliance and capacity to enforce its decisions. However, prop fails to demonstrate how removal of PM would ensure compliance with UNSC decisions of powerful states which would no longer be present on the UNSC, i.e. with no impetus or interest in having its decisions enforced. Equally, prop fails to show how UNSC operations could be supported without stable funding from powerful nations, e.g. for peace-keeping and enforcement actions. Contrary to prop’s unfounded assertion, both collective and national interests will equally be served as PM will incentivize states to provide funding which is absolutely instrumental to the effective discharge of UNSC’s mission. Thus UN peacekeeping operations alone cost $7.60 billion in the current fiscal year with 10 top financial contributors including 4 permanent members of UNSC (46.77% of the budget) and 2 aspiring permanent members Japan and Germany (20.55% of the budget). [[http://bit.ly/hY7qcF]]
It will lead to fair regional representation, as well as make it more legitimate and flexible

Prop failed to refute our counterarguments against their first 3 points showing lack of evidence to support their position. Prop repeats unsupported claims and opinions of their own without any legitimate sources of information in support. Thus, prop first suggests that “stable states (ex. Brazil, South Africa, India) & proved regional leaders” be part of ‘responsible-decision process’, but then state that “merely picking some countries that seem powerful and legitimate enough…is a failed strategy.” This is a clear self-contradiction on Prop’s part, showing once again lack of clearly defined position. In sum, prop failed to prove why PM should be removed, how equitable geographical representation and voting are exclusive of PM. Actually voting is already in place in UNSC with resolutions accepted by a certain number of votes. We acknowledge the need for UNSC reform, but no reform proposal has seriously suggested abortion of PM. [[http://on.cfr.org/qmdpvy]] Prop’s attempt to refute our argument by point at our own reference is another self-contradiction. Stating “their own reference #3 argues for having permanent seats” does not help prop’s case because this is exactly the thrust of our position to preserve PM irrespective of form of representation, be it regional or country. Prop failed to notice that we have promoted PM based on fair geographical representation throughout our case. It is naïve of prop to think that most developing countries can be as convincing as powerful states. Prosperity of developing countries largely depends on their relations with more powerful states. This holds especially true on the regional basis, e.g. Russia is the main export market for neighbouring countries. Developing countries understand this well. So this ‘fair’ representation through regular elections will ensure nothing but that powerful states retain their influence in the UNSC. The international community understands this well thus preserving PM
Argument 1: PM serves interests of developing countries

Unlike what prop suggests the possibility to remove permanent membership (PM) has never been seriously contemplated, and for good reasons. There are certain benefits tied to PM that would serve to advance the interests of developing countries in UNSC decision-making. To see the importance of PM to developing countries, one only has to look at the fervor with which countries from underrepresented Latin America, Asia and Africa, most notably Brazil, India and Nigeria, have sought PM of the UNSC recently.[[http://bit.ly/q6wAfQ]] Developing countries aspire to gain the advantages that PM provides, especially a permanent voice in UNSC discussions and power to influence decisions of global importance legally binding under international law. As Dumisani Kumalo of South Africa noted, no serious suggestions to abolish permanent membership have been discussed by various UNSC reform initiatives, thus requiring that Africa be represented by Permanent Members.[[http://bit.ly/nzwXms]] Absolutely all UN members with the single exception of Bolivia have recognized that PM is critical to the effective functioning of UNSC whatever shape the UNSC reform eventually takes. [[http://bit.ly/rnku7m, p.6]] As the push for reform comes from developing countries, absence of any serious proposals and support for abolition of the permanent category of UNSC membership goes to show that developing countries see benefits in preserving PM as a viable mechanism for consistent and visible presence of developing countries in international law-making and enforcement. Prop is siding with the P5 by opposing the expansion of PM as the five Great Powers will have ensured their dominant influence in the UNSC under any reform option, e.g. by buying UNSC rotating members’ votes with aid as is already the case.[[ http://bit.ly/qmVIXL%5D%5D Without PM it is the developing countries that will lose by missing an excellent opportunity to finally gain a visible, well-deserved presence on the international arena.
Argument 3: PM ensures continuity essential to resolving issues of international peace and security

Permanent presence on the UNSC ensures continuity in the resolution of complex international situations which take decades to resolve, much longer than the terms served by non-PMs, e.g. Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Georgia and Cyprus. This continuity in turn allows UNSC to work to resolve longstanding international issues consistently and with decisive force regardless of any undue influence and pressure from other countries that non-PMs may face when seeking reelection. Thus, due to the ‘Cyprusization’ effect where deliberations have lasted for years in which many non-PMs have not been involved, only PMs can effectively address these issues. As they have participated in discussions of these issues before, “they have a continuous record of what has been discussed over the years and in the context of informal consultations, and possess superior information over other members.” [[Rev Int Organ (2011) 6:163–187/DOI 10.1007/s11558-011-9101-1, p. 173]] Preserving PM is essential to ensuring UNSC has the institutional memory and experience necessary to deal with issues of international peace and security. Only PMs have a continuous record and memory of the UNSC’s work over the years. As UNSC often relies on precedents in its work, non-PMs have either no knowledge of or background on these precedents and need PMs’ help. [[http://bit.ly/paBZ1o, p. 260]] Thus, to abolish PM would be undermine the work done by UNSC throughout its history because of lack of institutional memory and experience among non-PMs.
Introduction

The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) is a body with "..primary responsibility, under the Charter, for the maintenance of international peace and security." [[http://www.un.org/Docs/sc/unsc_background.html]]. Currently it is comprised of five permanent member states (5Ps) and ten non-permanent member states which are elected by member states. The five permanent members enjoy an exclusive right to singlehandedly veto any resolution proposed for the UNSC. The manner of exercising veto rights have given firm ground for critics of the UNSC. Veto is used as an economic and power display tool in the political arena and has had little to do with international peace and security. The veto issue is believed to be the reason for the massive failure of UNSC to prevent the humanitarian disasters in Rwanda in 1994 and Darfur in 2004. [[https://www.law.kuleuven.be/iir/nl/onderzoek/wp/WP78e.pdf]] Failure to act poses problems more elaborated in our case have been noticed by the global community and a reform has been in the process of devising since 2005 however the biggest issue is on the permanent membership expansion. [[http://www.reformtheun.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3&Itemid=7]] We believe the way to make the UNSC more focused on its actual mission and duties is to abolish permanent positions in UNSC altogether. We believe all 15 seats should be distributed in world regions and subjected to an election of the member states of that region. We do not think that this debate should be about exact regional representation, instead it should be decided on the potential to make UN Security Council more accountable and effective in solving global security problems. With regard to veto rights, we believe it is an issue worth a debate of its own and therefore we would like to seperate this debate from it. We do not however sympathise with the current practices of 5Ps for exercising veto rights.
It would make the UNSC more effective and efficient

The selective responses and endless battles on who will veto what have damaged the efficiency and the effectiveness of the UNSC. Firstly, having permanent positions have allowed the states to use veto to achieve a “deadlock in the admissions procedure,” prohibiting the organisation to be contemporary and serve the current needs. Although veto might be an incentive to thoroughly reason and negotiate the resolution with opponents, in reality it has proven to create deadlocks simply due to stubbornness which no negotiation can mend. And it has become so powerful largely due to the fact there is little consequence to such behaviour among 5Ps. Existence of permanent seats creates a situation when the UNSC is dominated by national interest not collective security. It perpetuates geopolitical games and does not allow the UNSC to step up to the higher and more important role it was created for in the first place. When no permanent seats are possible, even if a country exercises veto, it can no longer take only its own interest into account; it has to be to some extent aligned with the interest of the majority of the region. Although it might not work perfectly in the real setting, just enabling this tool would allow focusing more on the actual duties: international peace, sanctions and other means to stop aggressors, and maintain operation of the UNSC. [[http://www.un.org/Docs/sc/unsc_functions.html]] Even if there would still be dead-end in negotiation over resolutions, vetoes would be backed by region, thus more justified and there would be a possibility to start over after election for decisions such as membership and judges of International Court of Justice.
It will lead to fair regional representation, as well as make it more legitimate and flexible

Most of the opposition's material covered the emerging countries and why they should be included in PM. Their proposal of mere expansion the PM is useless and does not solve the global inaction problems. On the other hand, voting is a good mechanism for mobilizing the states from different regions and empowering them to have a larger say on the international arena. Our extension will analyze the issue from developing countries' perspective and show why our plan benefits them more. First, we have to understand that emerging world is varied in itself, and merely picking some countries that seem powerful and legitimate enough and then giving them PM is a failed strategy that will necessarily lead to tensions similar to those we already have between permanent and non-permanent memebers. For example, it is reasonable to assume that Pakistan won't be content if India is elected as PM in UNSC, further destabilising this region and hampering the global security achievements. In contrast, gathering mandate through votes will be seen much more legitimate among developing countries themselves. That is how democratic system works: if bad decisions are made, voters won't vote next time.
Argument 2: UNSC sanctions become powerless without PM

1) Opposition traditionally PMs have been nations that are able to exert its influence on a global scale and thus fulfill UNSC’s mission best by ensuring peace and security in the world this view is extremely naive and simply not true. The fact that existing 5Ps were victorious in WW2 and are strong in economic, military, diplomatic, and other terms does not mean that they have been devoted to maintaining global peace, nor does it guarantee that they will be successful and unbiased in the future. For every example of "success" the opposition mentions there are numerous examples of severe violations of authorities given to 5Ps, e.g. Vietnam War launched by the US, Russia-Georgian war in 2008, let alone the Cold War between the Western and the Eastern Blocs that by no means contributed to collective security. 5Ps' leaders are at best accountable to their own voters, at worst - to their political elite, so under status quo their abundance of authority is simply not legitimate. 2) It is unclear what opposition was trying to deliver with this point. Common knowledge facts about economic strengths of 5Ps in no way relate to the issues of legitimacy, accountability, and supra-nation organizations' effectiveness raised in this debate; nor, for that matter, they prove the assertion in the argument's title - "UNSC sanctions become powerless without PM". Even if we assume the statement is true, the opp has never proved why having powerful nations blackmail others via economic mechanisms and push forward their own interests is a legitimate and effective system of global security control.
Summary (Uzbekistan)

First off, opp would like to draw attention to prop’s failure to present a clearly defined case in support of removal of PM. While excluding veto power from the scope of our debate, prop kept citing examples of failure of UNSC to act caused by the use of veto power (Rwanda, Darfur, Tibet, Chechnya, etc.) but brought no substantive support for abolition of PM per se. Nor did they propose any viable options for reforming UNSC without PM in place. Prop failed to adduce any evidence showing the need for removing PM and to refute our arguments for preserving and expanding PM. In particular, prop failed as to the following: 1) Scope of debate Prop went outside the scope of debate it had itself initially set. Thus, prop first stated that issues of veto power and regional representation would not be discussed, but later based all its arguments on examples relating to those two issues. Conversely, as opp we focused our case entirely on harms of removal of PM and benefits of preserving & expanding PM. 2) Lack of understanding of the subject Prop throughout the debate exhibited superficial knowledge of the subject, e.g. by assuming P5 could single-handedly veto ANY resolution (which is true only for substantive ones) and enjoy unrivalled ability to make decisions (while it still requires 9 votes to pass any UNSC decision). 3) Lack of evidence Prop’s case mainly consisted of unsupported claims and opinions of their own. Despite opp’s highlighting this issue, prop continued with the practice. We believe this debate is not about making unfounded assertions but about proving one’s case based on reliable sources and realities on the ground. In their fourth point prop summarized and repeated all the same ideas as in their previous 3 points, which again proves prop has no new ideas and evidence to support their case. As opp we still provided a clear response to that argument. 4) No reaction to counterarguments Prop failed to react to counterarguments containing evidence negating their points. Thus, for example, prop failed to show how removal of PM would prevent regional leaders from using informal methods to influence UNSC decision-making. Prop has clearly shown lack of evidence to support their case, such as their failed attempt to use our reference against us contradicting themselves. 5) Prop’s self-contradictions Prop presented many self-contradictions, which we have identified throughout our case. For example, stating that regional leaders like India and Brazil wish to join ‘responsible decision process’ while asserting that “merely picking some countries that seem powerful and legitimate enough…is a failed strategy” is both self-contradictory and shows lack of clarity of prop’s position. As opp we have shown how removal of PM would harm the interests of developing countries, undermine the work done by UNSC throughout its history and worsen global economic conditions. Prop in turn has failed to prove their case as shown above.
It would increase the legitimacy of the UNSC

However, the real challenge for UN members is to agree on “how to compose a Council sufficiently small for efficient and effective action and sufficiently large to be effective and its decisions to be legitimate.” [[Nico Schrijver (2007), J.C. & S.L. 130]] Prop stresses that legitimacy of UNSC has been endangered & it should be increased. Prop claims that at creation of UNSC, it had some legitimacy, but now it does not. But how Prop determined the degrees of legitimacy & what is the required level of legitimacy has been left unclear. Citing Brazil, South Africa and India as examples of how PM disadvantages regional powers is totally misleading. In fact, under most of the reform proposals these countries are considered the most natural and legitimate contenders for new permanent seats on the reformed UNSC. [[http://bit.ly/orcFBU]] By opposing the expansion of PM to include these regional powers, prop kicks itself in the foot and contradicts its own stated aim of more equitable geographical representation. Prop states that countries that are stable & proved regional leadership should be able to make ‘responsible decisions’. Next they state that P5 enjoy making decisions with an effect on the collective security. But prop failed to explain what ‘responsible decisions’ are. We are left with no choice but to infer that responsible decisions mean those affecting collective security. It means that Prop unknowingly asserts new regional powers become PMs, thus supporting our case. The claim that P5 enjoy unrivalled ability to make decisions affecting collective security is false. Under the UN Charter it takes 9 votes not only those of P5 to make a decision! It is clear that removing PM will cause the UN to fail just like the League of Nations. The main lesson to learn from LoN failure had been that an international organization cannot work unless all major powers are not members (US decision not to join and exclusion of the USSR). [[http://goo.gl/SyTBh]]
Yes because it would allow natural selection to proceed

If people cannot understand basic information about the risks of a particular activity then they will suffer the consequences and hopefully nature will select them out of the population before they can breed. If someone decides to smoke, drink (the major killers and the major expense for the taxpayer BTW) or take any drug then they should be allowed to do so. There is plenty of information out there to allow people to make an informed choice. If they harm themselves or others as a result of their decision then they should be denied free healthcare and made to compensate financially and criminally any individual they harm as a result of their informed decision. People who are incapable of understanding this most basic of information are a drain on humanity and should not be allowed to propagate their DNA. Research has shown that they are more likely to wear white trainers and have a satellite dish. This way, in a few hundred years or so, hardworking taxpayers will be relieved of the burden of illicit drug use as well as seeing their welfare bill plummet. The only losers with be Reebok and Sky
Public health reasons

It is surely a good reason now why children and adults find it difficult to get hold of drugs and a reason why all of the other has not been suggested. There have been a significant amount of reported cases of children getting hold of parent's or guardian's drugs when drugs are prohibited now. This is not because the prohibition of drugs does not work, but that drugs themselves are bad and no matter what we do we cannot erase the fact that we have discovered them. If, however, we decided the logical result to the above would be to allow drugs on the market, even if they are carefully censored, the drug-addict would leave a lot more pills for example lying around for their child to be able to pick up and play with. Drug-taking now is done in private because prohibition is effective, but if drug-taking was public, children would be a lot more aware at a young age of their existence and this is temptation.
Prohibition doesn't work

Prohibition works. It stops people getting hold of drugs easily. People have to go through dealers and smoke privately or take drugs or inject privately, as they will be arrested if public. The most that the law can do is to intervene publicly. Legalise one drug and you will have to legalise them all! Legalise weed and soon estacy and acid for instance, then heroin and crack cocaine. The whole reason we had these criminal sanctions for drug-taking is to prevent it.
Global implications

The illegal drugs market makes up 8% of all world trade (around £300 billion a year). Whole countries are run under the corrupting influence of drug cartels. Prohibition also enables developed countries to wield vast political power over producer nations under the auspices of drug control programmes. Legalisation returns lost revenue to the legitimate taxed economy and removes some of the high-level corruption. It also removes a tool of political interference by foreign countries against producer nations.
Provide access to truthful information and education

A wealth of disinformation about drugs and drug use is given to us by ignorant and prejudiced policy-makers and media who peddle myths upon lies for their own ends. This creates many of the risks and dangers associated with drug use. Legalisation would help us to disseminate open, honest and truthful information to users and non-users to help them to make decisions about whether and how to use. We could begin research again on presently illicit drugs to discover all their uses and effects - both positive and negative.