An analysis of Chinese and Russian positions on South Africa’s inclusion as a permanent member of the UNSC.

Abstract

The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) is critical to global peace and security, yet decades of negotiations over its reform have proved fruitless. As an important organ for global peace and security, it lacks geographic representation and also has no African state included as a permanent member. This has been an ongoing debate for decades. This paper analyses the Russian and Chinese positions on UNSC reform and South Africa’s inclusion as a permanent member. The paper further analyses the implications of the positions of China and Russia on this. We employed qualitative research method, specifically document analysis as a data technique in order to obtain existing data on Moscow and Beijing’s positions on Pretoria’s inclusion as a permanent member of the UNSC. We further used cooperative game and alliance shelter theories as our frameworks of analysis to navigate Chinese and Russian positions on South Africa’s inclusion as a permanent member of the UNSC. We argue that China and Russia support reform and South Africa’s inclusion as a permanent member. However, both are reluctant to grant Pretoria veto power, which is an imperative factor on the issue of reform. We conclude that the alliance of China, Russia, and South Africa through BRICS is a cosmetic cooperation. Hence, South Africa may not have a substantial benefit from this new regionalism due to its lack of veto power, should reform occur.