Mission Impossible - Chances for a reform of the Security Council

Essay from the year 2008 in the subject Politics - Topic: International Organisations, grade: 2,0, University of Applied Sciences Bremen, course: Inter- and Transnational Relations, language: English, abstract: The community of states in the world is facing an important century. After the East-West conflict and the end of bipolar foreign politics, a wide range of new alliances construct the international political system. At the same time it gets clear that today's challenges ask for a new kind of international cooperation. The United Nations organization (UN) offers an arena for collective work on the big topics of the modern world. Peacekeeping around the globe and the fight against terrorism are two of the major points of the agenda that are treated in the organization's most important board, the Security Council. But the organization suffers from a loss of influence on the big players of the international competition. In my work I will present shortly the history of the United Nations before I go into the functions and the composition of the Security Council. I will explain the critical points and focus on the debate concerning a reform of the board. After presenting different resolutions out of the current international debates, I will bring the discussion and the attitude of the five permanent members of the Security Council in relation to the theory of political realism.