The Hard Truths About the UN Security Council Nobody Tells You
You think the UN Security Council is a place where 15 countries sit together and make decisions about world peace? Think again.
This is part of my retelling of “50 Years of Singapore and the United Nations” (Tommy Koh, Li Lin Chang, Joanna Koh, 2015, ISBN: 978-9814713030).
This chapter is written by Kishore Mahbubani. He’s one of Singapore’s most well-known diplomats and thinkers. He served as Singapore’s Ambassador to the UN twice. He was President of the UN Security Council. And later he became Dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy. The guy has been listed among the world’s top public intellectuals by Foreign Policy and Prospect magazines. So when he talks about the Security Council, he’s speaking from direct experience.
And what he has to say is not comfortable.
A “Demotion” That Changed Everything
Here’s a fun start. Mahbubani didn’t even want the job.
Before going back to New York, he was a Permanent Secretary in Singapore’s government. Budget of over $100 million. Then he got asked to go lead the diplomatic mission at the UN. Budget of less than $1 million. He felt like he’d been demoted.
But that “demotion” turned out to be the most eye-opening experience of his career. In just two years on the Security Council, he says he learned more about how global politics really works than in his previous 29 years in the foreign service. All the illusions fell away. He saw the world as it actually is.
Those two years gave him enough material to write several books about global governance. His book The Great Convergence came directly out of what he saw at the Security Council.
The Three Hard Truths
Mahbubani organizes his chapter around six truths. Three hard ones and three soft ones. Let’s start with the hard stuff.
Hard Truth 1: There Are Five Members. Everyone Else Is a Tourist.
On paper, the Security Council has 15 members. Five permanent members (China, France, Russia, UK, USA - called the P5) and ten elected members who rotate in and out.
In practice? There are five members and ten observers.
A Chilean diplomat told Mahbubani this before Singapore even joined the Council. And he was dead right. The P5 control the Council through their power and the fact that they never leave. They fight with each other on tons of issues. But they agree on one thing: the P5 should run the show.
A French diplomat summed it up perfectly. He called the ten elected members “tourists.”
The P5 were polite about it. They were even encouraging. They supported Singapore’s initiative to improve peacekeeping operations. But when Singapore brought in McKinsey to do a free study on how to improve the Council’s “working methods,” the P5 shut it down. Hard.
Why? Because the P5 wanted the rules of procedure to stay “provisional.” That way they could do whatever they wanted. For example, the US delegation once vetoed an invitation for the President of the World Court to speak to the Security Council. The World Court. How is that a threat?
Years later, when Singapore’s Ambassador Vanu Gopala Menon led an initiative by five small states to improve transparency at the Council, the P5 blocked that too.
Mahbubani calls the P5 the “unelected dictators” of humanity. And the Secretariat staff? They go along with it because if they push back, they get transferred. The Western media has never really exposed any of this.
Hard Truth 2: Interests Beat Principles. Every Time.
In theory, the Security Council makes decisions based on international law. In practice, the P5’s own interests win every time.
The worst example? Rwanda.
In 1994, there was overwhelming evidence that genocide was coming in Rwanda. The Canadian UN peacekeeping commander General Romeo Dallaire warned them. Former Canadian Ambassador Stephen Lewis documented it. The Security Council had the information.
But the US had just gotten burned in Somalia in 1993. American soldiers were killed. So the US blocked intervention in Rwanda. And 800,000 people died.
Bill Clinton later admitted it. He said: “We did not act quickly enough after the killing began. We should not have allowed the refugee camps to become safe haven for the killers. We did not immediately call these crimes by their rightful name: genocide.”
And it’s not just the US. China vetoed extending a peacekeeping mission in Macedonia because Macedonia had diplomatic relations with Taiwan. When the US used the Security Council to block any prosecution of US military personnel by the International Criminal Court, the UK went along with it to protect its relationship with America. Even though Britain was a signatory of the ICC convention. Principles went out the window.
It gets worse. The P5 would make private commercial deals with each other over things like Iraqi oil contracts. “If you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours.” Many of these backroom deals still haven’t come to light.
Hard Truth 3: Reform Is a Joke
In theory, the P5 welcome the idea of adding new permanent members to the Security Council. In practice, they fight it with everything they have.
The most hypocritical ones? France and the UK.
Here’s why. China, Russia, and the US know they’ll keep their seats no matter what. But France and the UK? Not so certain. So France and UK have stopped using vetoes. Any veto from them would create backlash and put their seats at risk.
And here’s the really clever part. France and UK loudly support India, Japan, Germany, and Brazil as new permanent members. Sounds generous, right? But they know it will never happen. Because each of those countries has a neighbor who will block them. Pakistan blocks India. China and South Korea block Japan. Italy blocks Germany. Argentina blocks Brazil.
The UN has been discussing Security Council reform since 1993. More than two decades. Zero progress.
A senior American official privately admitted to Mahbubani that Washington DC has been firmly opposed to reform. Which makes sense. When you’re the world’s top superpower, why change the system that gives you the most power?
Will Reform Ever Happen?
Mahbubani actually thinks yes. And his reasoning is interesting.
He quotes Bill Clinton from a 2003 speech at Yale. Clinton basically said: if you believe America should use its power now while it’s on top, then go ahead and keep things as they are. But if you believe America should build a world with rules and partnerships that it would want to live in when it’s no longer the top power, then you’d do things differently.
Mahbubani agrees with this logic. As China’s economy has already passed America’s in some measures, American interests are shifting. When America realizes it’s no longer number one, it will want a reformed and stronger Security Council. Because at that point, rules and institutions will protect America too.
He proposes something called the 7-7-7 formula from his book The Great Convergence. It would give permanent seats to the most populous states in Asia, Africa, and Latin America (India, Nigeria, and Brazil), plus semi-permanent seats for middle powers. He sees this as the only way to break the deadlock.
The Three Soft Truths
After the hard stuff, Mahbubani gives three reasons why Singapore should still believe in the UN. These are gentler but just as important.
Soft Truth 1: The UN Made the World Safer for Small Countries
Before World War II, small states got invaded and occupied all the time. After the UN Charter was signed in 1945, that changed. The P5 might be hypocritical. They might only pay lip service to UN principles. But the fact that these principles exist, that the world is watching, that changes behavior. It restrains not just the big powers but the middle powers too.
Steven Pinker’s The Better Angels of Our Nature has data backing this up. The world really is a safer place for smaller states since the UN was created.
Soft Truth 2: Reason, Logic, and Charm Actually Work
Mahbubani told young Singapore diplomats that the only “weapons” they carry as representatives of a small state are reason, logic, and charm. No military power. No economic threats. Just good arguments.
And he points to Ambassador Tommy Koh as the proof. Tommy Koh persuaded the entire world to accept the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). Even the US, which never officially ratified it, still follows it. A small country’s diplomat got a superpower to handcuff itself with international law. That’s the power of being right and being persuasive.
Soft Truth 3: Singapore Has Real Influence at the UN
Without the UN, Singapore would have zero global influence. With it, Singapore punches way above its weight. One of the reasons is the Forum of Small States (FOSS), set up by Singapore’s Ambassador Chew Tai Soo. Singapore has chaired it since its founding.
A New Zealand Ambassador to the UN used to joke, quoting Star Wars: “May the FOSS be with you.”
That forum helped Singapore win a seat on the Security Council. It gave a tiny island nation real standing in the global system.
What This Means Going Forward
Mahbubani wraps up with advice for future Singapore leaders. He says Singapore should run for the Security Council again, maybe in two or three decades. And whoever is in charge then should remember these six truths. They won’t change.
The P5 will still run the show. Interests will still beat principles. Reform will still be blocked. But the UN will still make the world safer for small countries. Reason will still matter. And Singapore will still have influence if it stays engaged.
Here’s the thing about this chapter. It’s not cynical. It’s realistic. Mahbubani doesn’t say “the system is broken, walk away.” He says “the system is deeply flawed, but it still works for small states. So understand it, play it smart, and keep pushing for something better.”
That’s a lesson that goes way beyond Singapore.
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