Towards a more accountable United Nations Security Council

Book excerpt: Reform discourse about the United Nations Security Council gives every reason to believe that flaws in its legal and institutional design prevent the Council from adequately meeting its responsibility to maintain or restore international peace and security - in part by allowing the Council to act in an ad hoc and unprincipled manner. In Towards a more accountable United Nations Security Council, Carolyn Evans argues that enhanced accountability of the Council, and corresponding evolution of practice, are feasible, salutary changes towards the Council better answering its raison d'être. Discussion proceeds by probing the why, to whom, for what, and how, of Council accountability - four corners of concerns central to seeing any actor held accountable.