Hindered Reform: How Brazil’s Failed Bid for a Permanent UNSC Seat Reflects the Council’s Immutability

The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) stands as a central pillar in the global architecture of international security governance. Since its inception in 1945, the composition and functioning of the UNSC have been subject of intense scrutiny and debate, and there have been many attempts to reform it—without significant results, however. In the last decades, rising powers have been the main actors seeking the Council’s reform. In the previous two decades, Brazil has become one of the prominent emerging vocal players advocating the organ’s restructure. This article discusses these difficulties in changing the status quo at the UNSC by analyzing how the five permanent members’ views on Brazil’s bid for a permanent seat underscore the Council’s immutability and anachronism. It draws from a theoretical framework of status in international relations to argue that status anxiety justifies the interest in maintaining the status quo for the P5. The study was developed through a reflexive thematic analysis of 60 interviews with the foreign policy community of these states. Taking stock of the Brazilian case, the article argues that, despite the UNSC’s outdated structure, reform efforts are deemed unlikely to result in changes due to the challenges they pose to the current permanent members’ power and status, as well as to the rival states.