Today (8 November 2010), President Obama proposed that India get a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council. Part of me wants to get worked up about this, but I can’t.
The current permanent members are the United States, Great Britain, France, China, and Russia. Does anyone else see the problem here? Each one of the five have veto power over substantive resolutions. Is there any subject of significance on which all five of those countries can agree?
The United Nations is divided into two parts, one a clumsy and bureaucratic humanitarian aid agency and the other a political talk shop. Occasionally, the aid part of the operation does some good, but on the whole, the United Nations reminds me of the label, GNDN, that was to be found on some of the pipes in the Enterprise sets from the original Star Trek series. The joke among the set designers was that the letters meant, “Goes Nowhere and Does Nothing.” Of course, the United Nations goes many places, but the effect is the same, minus a good deal of waste.
That being the case, give India a seat. I doubt that the proposal could get past the objections of China, but imagine that it does. Pakistan will then want a seat of its own. Then Iran will want one. Then Brazil. And on and on and on. The result of this will be that nothing will ever get agreed, and the world can dispose of this waste of time and resources.
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