-1

Is there any other country which might have the ability or credentials to become a permanent member of the UN Security Council?

2

1 Answer 1

4

Apparently, not; at least, it would require amendment of the Charter of the UN:

Current edition of Article 23 of UN Charter says:

  1. […] The Republic of China, France, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and the United States of America shall be permanent members of the Security Council. The General Assembly shall elect ten other Members of the United Nations to be non-permanent members of the Security Council […]

It has been several times suggested the addition of new permanent members.
There were also several suggestions regarding increasing the number of non-permanent seats and also "semi-permanent" members (those whose rights are somewhere in between permanent and non-permanent).
At the moment, no proposals have been accepted yet:

Any reform of the Security Council would require the agreement of at least two-thirds of UN member states, and that of all the permanent members of the UNSC enjoying the veto right. — Wikipedia, Reform of the UNSC

2
  • 1
    Amending the charter is not in itself a big problem and certainly not a basis to answer no. There is even a couple of articles explicitly providing for amendments! The politics of UNSC reform are a much bigger problem.
    – Relaxed
    Jun 26, 2015 at 22:20
  • @Relaxed However, the fact that it requires charter amendment means the politics are much more finicky; for instance, from a procedural standpoint it's just as easy to change the structure of the UNSC as it is to add countries, so states that might be OK adding someone but would rather reform the whole thing push for the latter.
    – cpast
    Jun 27, 2015 at 0:02

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .