UN General Assembly
2010

global governance in the area of peace and security, the domain of the Security Council. The Council has the power to make decisions that are binding upon Member States, including on the use of force. This is the strongest tool available in international law. Yet its effectiveness is increasingly undermined by the perception that decisions of the Council lack the required political legitimacy. A central ingredient of that perception is the Council’s composition. Everybody agrees that it no longer reflects today’s geopolitical realities. And yet an agreement to change it has been elusive for well over a decade. We believe that there could be a middle ground in the negotiations: the creation of a new category of seats allowing States to serve permanently on the Council, if the wider membership elects them to do so, on a recurrent basis. It seems to us the only logical approach towards a compromise, given the various positions around the table. But the principal question may well be one of timing. If States increasingly believe that the Security