Revision summary
The Security Council has five permanent members with a veto and ten elected members for two years. Nine votes including the P5 are needed on substance. Chapter VI covers disputes; Chapter VII covers threats, sanctions, and force. Peacekeeping is a Council practice that the 1945 text did not fully name. The veto makes the Council a concert of major powers as well as a legal organ.
Model answer
Copper italics in this answer — like this — are the key facts. Each one is unpacked in the Facts & figures rail.
Introduction
The Security Council is the UN organ charged with primary responsibility for international peace and security. Its structure of five permanent members and ten elected members, and the veto, shape every function it performs.
Body
Structure
- Article 23 of the Charter provides five permanent members: China, France, the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
- Ten non-permanent members are elected by the General Assembly for two-year terms, with regard to contribution to peace and to equitable geography.
- Each member has one vote. Article 27 requires nine affirmative votes, including the concurring votes of the permanent members, on non-procedural matters. That is the veto.
- The Council is so organised as to be able to function continuously. A member must be able to send a representative at all times.
Functions
- It investigates disputes and recommends adjustment under Chapter VI.
- Under Chapter VII it may determine a threat to the peace, a breach of the peace, or an act of aggression, and decide on measures not involving force (Article 41) or force (Article 42).
- It authorises sanctions, arms embargoes, and most United Nations peacekeeping operations, which sit in practice between Chapters VI and VII.
- It recommends admission of new UN members and nominates the Secretary-General together with the Assembly’s appointment.
- It may refer situations to the International Criminal Court where the Rome Statute allows, as a political-legal function added after 1945.
Working facts
- Subsidiary bodies include sanctions committees and the Military Staff Committee, which has never operated as the Charter’s armed-force design intended.
- Reform debates, including India’s claim treated in Paper II Section B, target the 1945 map of power, not the idea of a security council as such.
Flow diagram
Conclusion
The Security Council’s structure is P5 plus ten elected members, with a veto on substance. Its functions run from pacific settlement to sanctions, force authorisation, and peacekeeping. Effectiveness follows great-power agreement, not the text alone.
Quick related
Students also ask
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How does the regime change and political crisis in Myanmar threaten regional security and peace?
Next question on this syllabus topic (2023 · Q2(c)). View answer →
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Can the General Assembly replace the Council in a crisis?
The Uniting for Peace practice allows Assembly recommendations when the Council is blocked. It cannot create Chapter VII obligations in the same way.
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Does abstention by a P5 member kill a resolution?
Practice treats a P5 abstention as not a veto if nine votes are present. A negative vote by a P5 member is a veto.
Same topic · past papers
UPSC has asked this before
These previous-year questions sit on the same topic. Open one to practise the earlier ask.
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2023 · Q1(d) · PSIR GS 2 · 10 marks
What is the structure and functions of International Court of Justice? -
2022 · Q1(d) · PSIR GS 2 · 10 marks
Bipolar structure of the world is more stable than the multipolar one. Comment.
More from this topic
Q5(a) · UPSC Mains 2024 · PSIR GS 2 · 10 marks · Solution
"India must strive to become a semi-permanent member of the UNSC, rather than a permanent member without the right to veto." Comment.
India and the UN System
India’s G4 line seeks a permanent UNSC seat; the P5 have no wish to multiply vetoes. A permanent seat without veto is prestige without the instrument that makes permanence matter in crises. Semi-permanent renewable long terms would increase India’s presence and coalition practice, closer to elected-term diplomacy. The comment is right as a ranking of second-best outcomes, not as a demand to abandon the public permanent-seat claim. What India needs is a Council that cannot ignore it; recurrence plus coalitions may beat a mute nameplate.
Q6(b) · UPSC Mains 2023 · PSIR GS 2 · 15 marks · Solution
Discuss the importance of India's role in UN peacekeeping operations as a ground for its claim to a permanent seat in the UN Security Council
India and the UN System
India is a historic top troop contributor to UN peacekeeping. That record supports a claim to help write the mandates, not only to staff them. G4 and African positions seek Council expansion; Charter amendment needs P5 consent. China is a central political obstacle among the five. Peacekeeping strengthens India’s case; it cannot by itself create a seat.
Q2(c) · UPSC Mains 2023 · PSIR GS 2 · 15 marks · Solution
How does the regime change and political crisis in Myanmar threaten regional security and peace?
India and the UN System
The February 2021 military takeover ended Myanmar’s elected government and widened civil war. Refugees, drugs, and stalled Kaladan and trilateral-highway work hit India and Bangladesh. China kept infrastructure and political access to the junta. ASEAN’s Five-Point Consensus was not implemented. Regional security declined because a weak State on several borders became a vacuum, not a buffer.