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The question of UN Security Council expansion has emerged as the most tempestuous of Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s proposed reforms at the world organization. Annan has expressed hope that an agreement on an enlarged council can be reached by the end of the year, and candidate nations are furiously engaged in shuttle diplomacy and horse-trading over their competing proposals for expansion. Meanwhile, the Bush administration, arguing there are more immediate reform priorities, has partnered with the Chinese government to urge a postponement of the debate.
 
Will an expanded Security Council possess greater legitimacy and thus wield power more effectively, or is it more likely to become bogged down in conflicts of national interest and slower decision-making? What are the geopolitical consequences for the expansion debate for the United States and its great power relations with allies? Is it likely that the proposal will stall in the UN General Assembly, or will the consensus necessary for expansion emerge this year?
 
These and other questions will be the subject of a panel discussion with Kim R. Holmes, vice president of foreign and defense policy studies at the Heritage Foundation and former assistant secretary of state for international organization affairs (2002–2005); Ambassador R.S. Jassal, deputy chief of mission at the Embassy of India; Nobukatsu Kanehara, minister for political affairs at the Embassy of Japan; Edward C. Luck, professor of practice in international and public affairs and director of the Center on International Organization at Columbia University; and Phillip van Niekerk, founder and North American head of the Good Governance Group. AEI research fellow Vance Serchuk will moderate.