Reforming the United Nations Security Council: Feasibility or Utopia?

Reforming the United Nations Security Council has been on the agenda of the General Assembly for over two decades. However, structural reform of the Council remains elusive. This article explains why after so many years nearly all 193 states within theunremain actively seized on the matter of reform, despite no immediate outcome being in sight. In order to analyze Security Council reform efforts and the various obstacles along the way, this article emphasizes states’ motivations during the reform process. With the help of new institutionalist theory, an argument is formed that highlights how certain states are driven by strategic calculations and self-interest, while others are more normatively motivated. Furthermore, the article highlights that despite only lukewarm support for reform from certain states, not a single state can publicly denounce Council reform, because the reform issue itself has become an ingrained norm.