A representative United Nations Security Council: is Input Legitimacy Sufficient?

Abstract

This article aims to complement an existing body of literature on the lack of legitimacy in the United Nations Security Council (UNSC). It firstly builds a strong theoretical foundation that supports current reform proposals focused on enhancing participation in the Council. Using the African Union’s (AU) proposition as a case study, the ‘representative approach’ is then evaluated as a legitimation strategy for the UNSC. Both the effectiveness and the viability of the AU’s proposal are assessed through cross-comparisons with competing coalitions and critical analysis grounded on a rich body of literature on legitimation. The main conclusion is that, whilst, in theory, proposals like the AU’s would be effective to legitimise the inputs of the Council, they are unlikely to succeed and are therefore not feasible strategies. This finding reveals that the legitimacy of the UNSC may be constrained by its founding social contract and suggests that legitimation strategies may have to shift beyond structural approaches to reform. To that end, this article ends by foregrounding the procedural approach as a viable and possibly effective way of legitimising the Council, thereby opening a window of opportunity in the discussion of UNSC reform.