POL343Y5 Lecture Notes - Liberal Internationalism, Atlantic Charter, Liberal Democracy
8 Jun 2014
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How britain and france could reform the un security council. The failures of the league and the even greater destruction of the second world war catalysed the formation of the united nations. The centre of the organisation is the security council, the most powerful organ of the un, in which the five victorious powers of the world-war alliance were ensconced with permanent seats and veto power. The security council thus ratified and institutionalised the prevailing balance of power and the status of the great powers in 1945. Europe was still heavily represented, with two states, the united kingdom and france, occupying two of the five permanent, veto-bearing seats. In the nearly seven decades since the drafting of the charter, the underlying balance of power has relentlessly shifted, to the point where there is no justification for british and french claims to great-power status.
