An Examination of the International Constraint to Nigeria's Quest for a United Nations Security Council Seat in the Aftermath of the Cold War.

This article argues that the nature of international politics is structured in a manner that allows powerful states to determine outcomes within international organizations. It further noted that these powerful states are represented in the exclusive club of Permanent members of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), including the United States of America, France, Britain, China, and Russia. The authors observed that these powerful states would resist any attempt to reduce their privileges by way of reform. Apart from their reluctance to reform, the article noted that they have set up stringent conditions that make it difficult for the Charter of the United Nations to be amended to pave the way for any meaningful reform of the UNSC. The article benefited from key informant interviews conducted in Abuja and Lagos and secondary data sourced from the Library of the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies, Kuru. To make meaning of the sourced data, the authors adopted realism theory and the micro-variant of structural realism to analyze the data.