India's seat on the security council.
President Obama's declaration that India should have a permanent seat on the UN Security Council is being hailed as an overdue move to modernize an institution that has labored to reform itself to better reflect late 20th and early 21st century power realities. It's also, as Mark Leon Goldberg points out, not gonna happen anytime soon, if ever, thanks to China. Which just goes to show that the Council isn't a very effective body to begin with and will be seen as increasingly irrelevant by rising powers who are being excluded from the club.
In fact, this may already be happening. Eric Voeten argues that the G20 is becoming the forum dejour for today's great powers:
There is some evidence that the G-20 is increasingly becoming a place where security issues are discussed. The G-20 does not vote on resolutions with legally binding effects but it may increasingly become the place where the actual bargaining is done. If this practice evolves, then the pressures for reform could evolve with it.
(AP Photo)
