BharatNotes Why this chapter matters for UPSC: "International Organisations" is Chapter 4 of the current Contemporary World Politics (Reprint 2026-27); it was Chapter 6 before the rationalisation of 2022-23, and this site keeps the old numbering in its page order. NCERT's question is whether the United Nations, built for the world of 1945, can be reformed for the world after the Cold War, and whether it can "serve as a balance against US dominance". The chapter runs from why states need international organisations at all, through the UN's founding and its Secretaries-General, the two kinds of reform (structures and processes; jurisdiction), the Security Council debate and India's case for a permanent seat, to the UN in a unipolar world, with boxes on the IMF, the World Bank, the WTO, the IAEA, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. GS2 asks exactly these things: the impediments to India's permanent seat (Mains 2015), the functions of ECOSOC and its commissions (Mains 2017), the Security Council's Counter-Terrorism Committee (Mains 2024), the Bretton Woods institutions (Mains 2013), the WTO's mandate and the binding force of its decisions (Mains 2014), the Doha Round (Mains 2016), WTO reform in a "trade war" (Mains 2018) and UNESCO after the US withdrawal (Mains 2019); Prelims 2026 asked which UN agencies have won the Nobel Peace Prize. This page follows NCERT's sections in order, quotes NCERT's boxes and timeline where aspirants must reproduce them, and dates every membership figure, vote share and office-holder to the organisation's own page as read on 3-4 October 2026.
🧠 First Principles — Read This First
An international organisation is "not a super-state". NCERT's definition: it "is not a super-state with authority over its members. It is created by and responds to states. It comes into being when states agree to its creation. Once created, it can help member states resolve their problems peacefully." Everything about the UN's weakness and usefulness follows from that sentence: "the UN is a creature of its members", as the security chapter says.
Why cooperate through an organisation at all? Two reasons. Conflicts need not become wars, and "most conflicts and differences are resolved without going to war"; an organisation offers the place. And some things "can only be dealt with when everyone works together" (disease, global warming), but "recognising the need for cooperation and actually cooperating are two different things": states disagree on how, on sharing costs, on dividing benefits and on cheating. An organisation "can help produce information and ideas about how to cooperate" and provide "mechanisms, rules and a bureaucracy" that give members confidence.
Two reforms, one quarrel. "Two basic kinds of reforms face the UN: reform of the organisation's structures and processes; and a review of the issues that fall within the jurisdiction of the organisation." Almost everyone agrees both are needed; "what they cannot agree on is precisely what is to be done, how it is to be done, and when it is to be done". The Security Council is the test case of the first; the 2005 World Summit's list is the test case of the second.
PART 1 — Quick Reference
The Chapter at a Glance
| NCERT section | What it holds |
|---|---|
| Why international organisations? | the Lebanon cartoons of 2006; Hammarskjöld ("not created to take humanity to heaven, but to save it from hell") and Tharoor ("jaw-jaw is better than war-war"); not a super-state; two reasons to cooperate; the IMF box |
| Evolution of the UN | the League of Nations; the UN "founded as a successor" in 1945; the founding timeline (Atlantic Charter to India's admission); 51 founders; 193 members "by 2011"; the five permanent members "selected ... as they were the most powerful immediately after the Second World War and because they constituted the victors"; the Secretary-General ("most visible public figure"); the agencies |
| Reform of the UN after the Cold War | the two kinds of reform; the Security Council debate; what changed after the Cold War (seven points); the Secretaries-General box |
| Reform of structures and processes | the 1992 General Assembly resolution's three complaints; Annan's inquiry of 1 January 1997; six proposed criteria for new members; the veto; the World Bank box and the 2019 budget-contributor table |
| Jurisdiction of the UN | the September 2005 World Summit's seven steps (Peacebuilding Commission; the responsibility to protect; Human Rights Council; MDGs; condemnation of terrorism; Democracy Fund; winding up the Trusteeship Council) and why each is contentious |
| India and the UN reforms | India's support for restructuring; the Council "expanded from 11 to 15 in 1965" with no change in permanent members; India's claim (population, democracy, peacekeeping, payments); the objections; the WTO box |
| The UN in a unipolar world | US power "cannot be easily checked"; the UN "is not therefore a great balance to the US" but "can and has served to bring the US and the rest of the world into discussions"; the IAEA, Amnesty and Human Rights Watch boxes; "the UN is an imperfect body, but without it the world would be worse off" |
Membership and Figures (NCERT's figure first; the organisation's own page as read on 3-4 October 2026)
| Body | NCERT | Record |
|---|---|---|
| UN members | "By 2011, the UN had 193 member states" | 193; the last admitted, South Sudan, on 14 July 2011 (un.org member states) |
| Security Council | five permanent, ten non-permanent, two-year terms, no immediate re-election; enlarged from 11 to 15 in 1965 | non-permanent members in 2026: Bahrain, Colombia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Latvia and Liberia (terms to 2027); Denmark, Greece, Pakistan, Panama and Somalia (to 2026). India's eight terms: 1950-51, 1967-68, 1972-73, 1977-78, 1984-85, 1991-92, 2011-12, 2021-22 |
| Secretary-General | António Guterres, the ninth, from 1 January 2017 | still in office; his second term ends 31 December 2026; the selection of his successor is in Part 2 |
| IMF | "190 member countries (as on 19 Febuary 2024)"; votes: US 16.52%, Japan 6.15%, Germany 5.32%, France 4.03%, UK 4.03%, Italy 3.02%, Canada 2.22% ("41.29%"); China 6.09%, India 2.64%, Russia 2.59%, Brazil 2.22%, Saudi Arabia 2.02% | 191 members since Liechtenstein, 21 October 2024; the United States holds 17.42 per cent of quotas and 16.49 per cent of votes (imf.org members' quotas and voting power) |
| World Bank | "created during the Second World War in 1944"; human development, agriculture, environment, infrastructure, governance; criticised for conditions | as NCERT; the Bretton Woods conference was July 1944 |
| WTO | "set up in 1995 as the successor to the General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs (GATT)"; "164 members (as on 29 July 2016)" | 166 members "representing 98 per cent of world trade" after Comoros (21 August 2024) and Timor-Leste (30 August 2024); the 14th Ministerial Conference met at Yaoundé, 26-30 March 2026 |
| UN regular budget, 2019 | US 22.0%, China 12.0%, Japan 8.5%, Germany 6.0%, UK 4.5%, France 4.4%, Italy 3.3%, Brazil 2.9%, Canada 2.7%, Russia 2.4%, ... India 0.8% (21st) | NCERT's table (source: un.org, 2019 scale) |
| IAEA | "established in 1957" to implement Eisenhower's "Atoms for Peace" proposal | as NCERT |
Prelims traps in this chapter. (1) The Charter was signed on 26 June 1945 by 50 nations; Poland signed on 15 October, "so the UN has 51 original founding members"; the UN was founded on 24 October 1945 (UN Day); India joined on 30 October 1945. (2) NCERT's "193 member states" dates from South Sudan's admission on 14 July 2011 (its independence day, 9 July, is a different date). (3) The Security Council grew from 11 to 15 in 1965; the permanent five did not change. (4) The veto is a permanent member's negative vote; the Charter's Article 27 requires nine votes "including the concurring votes of the permanent members", and in practice an abstention does not block. (5) Guterres is the ninth Secretary-General (Trygve Lie first; Ban Ki-moon "the second Asian", after U Thant). (6) NCERT's IMF box gives vote shares; the United States' quota share (17.42 per cent) is a different number from its vote share (16.49 per cent). (7) GATT is "General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade" in its own title; NCERT's box reverses the words. (8) Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch are NGOs, not UN bodies; the IAEA is a related organisation, not a UN specialised agency.
PART 2 — Concepts & Narrative
Veto. "In taking decisions, the Security Council proceeds by voting. All members have one vote. However, the permanent members can vote in a negative manner so that even if all other permanent and non-permanent members vote for a particular decision, any permanent member's negative vote can stall the decision. This negative vote is the veto." NCERT's view of its future: there is "a move to abolish or modify the veto system", but "the permanent members are unlikely to agree", "the world may not be ready for such a radical step", and "without the veto, there is the danger as in 1945 that the great powers would lose interest in the world body, that they would do what they pleased outside it, and that without their support and involvement the body would be ineffective".
The two kinds of UN reform. "Reform of the organisation's structures and processes" (above all the Security Council's composition and the veto, but also "improvements in the UN's budgetary procedures and its administration" that "the US and other Western countries want") and "a review of the issues that fall within the jurisdiction of the organisation" (some want "a greater or more effective role in peace and security missions", others "its role to be confined to development and humanitarian work (health, education, environment, population control, human rights, gender and social justice)").
Why International Organisations?
NCERT opens with two cartoons on the UN's ineffectiveness in the Lebanon crisis of 2006 ("during June 2006, Israel attacked Lebanon ... The UN passed a resolution on this only in August and the Israel army withdrew from the region only in October"), and then with two insiders. Dag Hammarskjöld, "the UN's second Secretary-General": "The United Nations was not created to take humanity to heaven, but to save it from hell." Shashi Tharoor, "the former UN Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information": "Talking shop? Yes, there are a lot of speeches and meetings at the U.N. ... But as Churchill put it, jaw-jaw is better than war-war. Isn't it better to have one place where all ... countries in the world can get together, bore each other sometimes with their words rather than bore holes into each other on the battlefield?" NCERT's gloss: "International organisations are not the answer to everything, but they are important."
The two reasons and the definition are in First Principles. NCERT's examples of problems that need everyone are disease ("some diseases can only be eradicated if everyone in the world cooperates in inoculating or vaccinating their populations") and global warming, where "a more effective approach is to stop the warming itself", which "requires at least all of the major industrial powers to cooperate". The post-Cold War question is set here: "could [the UN] limit the power of the American government? We shall try to answer this question at the end of the chapter."
Evolution of the UN
"The First World War encouraged the world to invest in an international organisation to deal with conflict": the League of Nations, which "despite its initial success ... could not prevent the Second World War (1939-45)". The UN "was founded as a successor to the League of Nations", "established in 1945 immediately after the Second World War", "through the signing of the United Nations Charter by 51 states". Its objective "is to prevent international conflict and to facilitate cooperation among states"; since conflicts "often arose from the lack of social and economic development, the UN was intended to bring countries together to improve the prospects of social and economic development all over the world".
NCERT's founding timeline, which Prelims uses. August 1941: the Atlantic Charter signed by Roosevelt and Churchill. January 1942: "26 Allied nations fighting against the Axis Powers meet in Washington, D.C., to support the Atlantic Charter and sign the 'Declaration by United Nations'". December 1943: the Tehran Conference declaration of the three powers. February 1945: the Yalta Conference "decides to organise a United Nations conference on the proposed world organisation". April-May 1945: "the 2-month long United Nations Conference on International Organisation at San Francisco". 26 June 1945: "Signing of the UN Charter by 50 nations (Poland signed on October 15; so the UN has 51 original founding members)". 24 October 1945: "the UN was founded (hence October 24 is celebrated as UN Day)". 30 October 1945: India joins the UN. NCERT adds the Office of War Information poster of the Allied flags, which "reflects the belligerent origins of the UN".
"By 2011, the UN had 193 member states." In the General Assembly "all members have one vote each"; the Security Council's five permanent members are "the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France and China", "selected as permanent members as they were the most powerful immediately after the Second World War and because they constituted the victors in the War". The Secretary-General is "the UN's most visible public figure, and the representative head": "the present Secretary-General is António Guterres. He is the ninth Secretary-General of the UN. He took over as the Secretary-General on 1 January 2017. He was the Prime Minister of Portugal (1995-2002) and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (2005-2015)." War and peace "are discussed in the General Assembly as well as the Security Council"; social and economic issues "by many agencies including the World Health Organisation (WHO), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the United Nations Human Rights Commission (UNHRC), the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), and the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO)" (NCERT's names; the Human Rights Council replaced the Commission in 2006, as its own 2005 list says).
The nine Secretaries-General, from NCERT's box. Trygve Lie (1946-1952, Norway): "worked for ceasefire between India and Pakistan on Kashmir; criticised for his failure to quickly end the Korean war; Soviet Union opposed second term for him; resigned". Dag Hammarskjöld (1953-1961, Sweden): Suez, decolonisation of Africa, "awarded Nobel Peace Prize posthumously in 1961 for his efforts to settle the Congo crisis". U Thant (1961-1971, Burma/Myanmar): the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Congo, "established the UN Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus; criticised the US during the Vietnam War". Kurt Waldheim (1972-1981, Austria): Namibia, Lebanon, "oversaw the relief operation in Bangladesh; China blocked his bid for a third term". Javier Pérez de Cuéllar (1982-1991, Peru): Cyprus, Afghanistan, El Salvador, "mediated between Britain and Argentina after the Falklands War; negotiated for the independence of Namibia". Boutros Boutros-Ghali (1992-1996, Egypt): An Agenda for Peace, Mozambique, "blamed for the UN failures in Bosnia, Somalia and Rwanda; ... the US blocked a second term". Kofi Annan (1997-2006, Ghana): the Global Fund, "declared the US-led invasion of Iraq as an illegal act; established the Peacebuilding Commission and the Human Rights Council in 2005; awarded the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize". Ban Ki-moon (2007-2016, Republic of Korea): "the second Asian to hold the post", climate change, the MDGs and SDGs, UN Women. António Guterres (2017-, Portugal), the ninth. The selection of the tenth is in the dated box below.
Reform of the UN after the Cold War
NCERT's list of "some of the changes that have occurred" since 1945: "The Soviet Union has collapsed. The US is the strongest power. The relationship between Russia, the successor to the Soviet Union, and the US is much more cooperative. China is fast emerging as a great power, and India also is growing rapidly. The economies of Asia are growing at an unprecedented rate. Many new countries have joined the UN ... A whole new set of challenges confronts the world (genocide, civil war, ethnic conflict, terrorism, nuclear proliferation, climate change, environmental degradation, epidemics)." So "in 1989, as the Cold War was ending, the question facing the world was: is the UN doing enough? ... What reforms are necessary to make it work better?" (NCERT's third point, on US-Russia cooperation, describes the 1990s; the dated box below records where the relationship stood in 2026.)
Reform of Structures and Processes
"In 1992, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution" reflecting "three main complaints": the Security Council "no longer represents contemporary political realities"; its decisions "reflect only Western values and interests and are dominated by a few powers"; and "it lacks equitable representation". On 1 January 1997 "the UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan initiated an inquiry into how the UN should be reformed". The criteria proposed since for new members, in NCERT's list: "a major economic power; a major military power; a substantial contributor to the UN budget; a big nation in terms of its population; a nation that respects democracy and human rights; a country that would make the Council more representative of the world's diversity in terms of geography, economic systems, and culture". NCERT then shows why each is "problematic": how big a power, what level of contribution "would enable a state to buy its way into the Council", whether population is "an asset or a liability", whether rights-respecting states "would ... be effective as Council members", and whether representation should be by continent, region, level of development or "civilisation". A related demand is "that the veto power of the five permanent members be abolished", since "many perceived the veto to be in conflict with the concept of democracy and sovereign equality". The Council's structure, as NCERT states it: "five permanent members and ten non-permanent members"; the permanent members' "main privileges ... are permanency and the veto power"; non-permanent members "serve for only two years at a time" and "cannot be re-elected immediately"; they "are elected in a manner so that they represent all continents of the world".
The Council and the veto, dated. The ten non-permanent members in 2026 are Bahrain, Colombia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Latvia and Liberia (terms ending 2027) and Denmark, Greece, Pakistan, Panama and Somalia (terms ending 2026); India has served eight terms, the last in 2021-22 (un.org, Security Council current and elected members). The Dag Hammarskjöld Library's veto list (research guide last updated 23 September 2026) runs to about three hundred vetoed drafts and amendments since 1946; its newest entries are 17 September 2026 (S/2026/740, non-proliferation, vetoed by China and the Russian Federation) and 7 April 2026 (S/2026/273, the Middle East, vetoed by the same two). On Ukraine, the Council's first substantive text, resolution 2774 of 24 February 2025, "implores a swift end to the conflict and further urges a lasting peace between Ukraine and the Russian Federation"; Russia vetoed a competing European draft at the same meeting. On enlargement, the positions NCERT describes are now carried by named groups: the G4 (Brazil, Germany, India and Japan, the four states NCERT's text names as candidates) seeks new permanent seats; the African Union's common position, adopted in 2005, seeks two permanent and additional non-permanent seats for Africa; the Uniting for Consensus group opposes new permanent seats. No text has been put to a vote.
Jurisdiction of the UN
"As the UN completed 60 years of its existence, the heads of all the member-states met in September 2005 to celebrate the anniversary and review the situation", and "decided that the following steps should be taken": "Creation of a Peacebuilding Commission; Acceptance of the responsibility of the international community in case of failures of national governments to protect their own citizens from atrocities; Establishment of a Human Rights Council (operational since 19 June 2006); Agreements to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs); Condemnation of terrorism in all its forms and manifestations; Creation of a Democracy Fund; An agreement to wind up the Trusteeship Council." NCERT's point is that these "are equally contentious": which conflicts should a Peacebuilding Commission enter; "what are human rights and who should determine the level of human rights violations"; how realistic are the Sustainable Development Goals "given that so many countries are still part of the developing world"; "can there be agreement on a definition of terrorism? How shall the UN use funds to promote democracy?" Its Darfur cartoon asks whether intervention "would ... require a change in its jurisdiction".
India and the UN Reforms
"India has supported the restructuring of the UN on several grounds": "a strengthened and revitalised UN is desirable in a changing world"; "an enhanced role for the UN in promoting development and cooperation"; development "should be central to the UN's agenda as it is a vital precondition for the maintenance of international peace and security". Its "major concern" is the Council's composition, "which has remained largely static while the UN General Assembly membership has expanded considerably", harming "the representative character of the Security Council". "The membership of the UN Security Council was expanded from 11 to 15 in 1965. But, there was no change in the number of permanent members. Since then, the size of the Council has remained stationary." India "supports an increase in the number of both permanent and non-permanent members" and argues that restructuring "should ... be broad-based", with "more developing countries".
India's own claim, in NCERT's words: "India is the most populous country in the world comprising almost one-fifth of the world population. Moreover, India is also the world's largest democracy. India has participated in virtually all of the initiatives of the UN. Its role in the UN's peacekeeping efforts is a long and substantial one. The country's economic emergence on the world stage is another factor ... India has also made regular financial contributions to the UN and never faltered on its payments." Permanent membership "also has symbolic importance": "the reputation for being powerful makes you more influential." The objections: Pakistan "is not the only country that is reluctant"; "some countries ... are concerned about India's nuclear weapons capabilities"; others "think that its difficulties with Pakistan will make India ineffective"; "yet others feel that if India is included, then other emerging powers will have to be accommodated such as Brazil, Germany, Japan, perhaps even South Africa"; and some "feel that Africa and South America must be represented in any expansion of the permanent membership since those are the only continents not to have representation". NCERT's conclusion: "it may not be very easy for India or anyone else to become a permanent member of the UN in the near future".
India's record, dated. Peacekeeping: in the UN's ranking of uniformed personnel contributors as of 28 February 2026, India stood third with 4,278 personnel (4,121 men and 157 women), behind Rwanda (4,405) and Nepal (4,340) and ahead of Bangladesh (4,148) and Pakistan (UN Department of Peace Operations); NCERT's "long and substantial" record is the cumulative one, which the Government states in its own figures. Budget: NCERT's 2019 table puts India 21st at 0.8 per cent of the regular budget. Council service: eight terms, the last 2021-22. Population: NCERT's "most populous country" claim matches the United Nations' population estimates since 2023 (the Class XII geography pages carry the series). The United States has told the UN that it is leaving two of the bodies NCERT names: it "withdrew from the World Health Organization" on 22 January 2026, in its State Department's words, a notification WHO said it "regrets" (24 January 2026); and its withdrawal from the Paris Agreement took effect on 27 January 2026 (page 8 of this book).
The UN in a Unipolar World
"Can the UN serve as a balance against US dominance?" NCERT answers in two steps. "US power cannot be easily checked": the US "stands as the only superpower" whose "military and economic power allow it to ignore the UN or any other international organisation"; within the UN "the influence of the US is considerable" as "the single largest contributor", as host ("the UN is physically located within the US territory"), through its nationals in the bureaucracy and through the veto, which also gives Washington "a considerable degree of say in the choice of the Secretary General". So "the UN is not therefore a great balance to the US". But "in a unipolar world in which the US is dominant, the UN can and has served to bring the US and the rest of the world into discussions over various issues"; US leaders "do see the organisation as serving a purpose in bringing together over 190 nations"; for the rest of the world "the UN provides an arena in which it is possible to modify US attitudes and policies", "a space within which arguments against specific US attitudes and policies are heard and compromises and concessions can be shaped". The chapter ends: "The UN is an imperfect body, but without it the world would be worse off. Given the growing connections and links between societies and issues—what we often call 'interdependence'—it is hard to imagine how more than seven billion people would live together without an organisation such as the UN."
NCERT's boxes on the other organisations. IMF: "oversees those financial institutions and regulations that act at the international level"; members "do not enjoy an equal say" (NCERT's vote shares are in the table above). World Bank: "created during the Second World War in 1944"; works on human development, agriculture and rural development, environmental protection, infrastructure and governance; "provides loans and grants"; "often criticised for setting the economic agenda of the poorer nations, attaching stringent conditions to its loans and forcing free market reforms". WTO: "sets the rules for global trade"; "set up in 1995 as the successor to the General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs (GATT) created after the Second World War"; "all decisions are taken unanimously but the major economic powers such as the US, EU and Japan have managed to use the WTO to frame rules of trade to advance their own interests"; developing countries "complain of non-transparent procedures and being pushed around by big powers". IAEA: "established in 1957 ... to implement US President Dwight Eisenhower's 'Atoms for Peace' proposal"; "seeks to promote the peaceful use of nuclear energy and to prevent its use for military purposes"; its teams "regularly inspect nuclear facilities". Amnesty International: an NGO that "campaigns for the protection of human rights all over the world", holds that "human rights are interdependent and indivisible", and publishes reports whose "major focus ... is the misconduct of government authorities". Human Rights Watch: "the largest international human rights organisation in the US", which "helped in building international coalitions like the campaigns to ban landmines, to stop the use of child soldiers and to establish the International Criminal Court".
The economic institutions, dated. The IMF has had 191 members since Liechtenstein joined on 21 October 2024; its table of quotas and voting power gives the United States 17.42 per cent of quotas and 16.49 per cent of votes (imf.org, read 4 October 2026); NCERT's box prints the vote shares of 19 February 2024. The WTO has 166 members, "representing 98 per cent of world trade", after Comoros (21 August 2024) and Timor-Leste (30 August 2024); its 14th Ministerial Conference met at Yaoundé, Cameroon, from 26 to 30 March 2026, and the WTO records that "in the absence of a decision at the 14th Ministerial Conference in March 2026 to renew the Work Programme and the moratorium on customs duties on electronic transmissions", the moratorium lapsed on 30 March 2026 and members are discussing "pathways forward" (wto.org); the Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies, adopted at the 12th Ministerial Conference in June 2022, entered into force on 15 September 2025. NCERT's complaint that "all decisions are taken unanimously" describes the consensus rule that produced that lapse. Separately from the WTO, India and the European Union "announced the conclusion of negotiations for a Free Trade Agreement" on 27 January 2026 (PIB), and on 11 September 2026 the European Commission put the agreement to the Council "for signature and conclusion"; it was not signed or in force when this page was read.
Choosing the tenth Secretary-General, as of 4 October 2026. Guterres's second term ends on 31 December 2026. The UN's page on the "Selection and Appointment of the Next Secretary-General, Process 2025-2026" listed seven live nominations when read: Rafael Mariano Grossi (nominated by Argentina, 26 November 2025), Macky Sall (Burundi, 2 March 2026), Rebeca Grynspan Mayufis (Costa Rica, 3 March 2026), María Fernanda Espinosa Garcés (Antigua and Barbuda, 11 May 2026), Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett (Guyana, 15 June 2026), Olara Otunnu (Uganda, 24 July 2026) and Ivonne A-Baki (Tonga, 17 August 2026). Michelle Bachelet's nomination was withdrawn by Chile on 25 March 2026 and by Brazil and Mexico on 21 September 2026; Virginia Gamba's, by the Maldives, on 25 March 2026. The Security Council wrote to the General Assembly on the start of its consideration of candidacies (29 May 2026) and on interactive dialogues and straw polls (28 July 2026); the page carried no recommendation. The Charter's procedure, which NCERT's chapter describes through the US "say in the choice", is that the Council recommends and the Assembly appoints.
PART 3 — UPSC Integration
How UPSC has asked this chapter. GS2 2015: "Discuss the impediments India is facing in its pursuit of a permanent seat in the UNSC." NCERT's objections paragraph is the answer's spine (Pakistan, nuclear weapons, "other emerging powers will have to be accommodated", Africa and South America unrepresented), with the dated record of the G4, the African common position and Uniting for Consensus. GS2 2017: ECOSOC's functions and commissions (NCERT's exercise 7 gives ECOSOC "the economic and social welfare of the member countries"). GS2 2024: the Counter-Terrorism Committee's effectiveness (NCERT: "can there be agreement on a definition of terrorism?"). GS2 2013, 2014, 2016, 2018: the Bretton Woods institutions, the WTO's mandate and binding force, the Doha Round, WTO reform: NCERT's boxes plus the dated figures above. GS2 2019: UNESCO after the US withdrawal, now paralleled by the US withdrawals from WHO (22 January 2026) and the Paris Agreement (27 January 2026). Prelims 2026 asked which UN agencies won the Nobel Peace Prize; NCERT's box records Hammarskjöld's (1961) and Annan's (2001).
Three Frameworks
1. "Not a super-state." Begin every answer on the UN's failures with NCERT's definition: the organisation can do what its members, above all the permanent five, allow. The veto list and the 2026 Council composition are the evidence.
2. Two reforms, six criteria, seven steps. Structures and processes (the Council; the veto; budget and administration) against jurisdiction (the 2005 list). For the Council, run the six criteria NCERT lists and show why each is contested; for jurisdiction, take one 2005 step (the responsibility to protect; the Human Rights Council; the Democracy Fund) and show the quarrel over it.
3. India's four claims and four objections. Population, democracy, peacekeeping and payments against Pakistan, nuclear status, the accommodation problem and the unrepresented continents. Date the claims (peacekeeping rank, budget share) and the objections (the AU's position, Uniting for Consensus).
Confused Pairs
- Charter signed (26 June 1945, 50 states; Poland 15 October) vs UN founded (24 October 1945) vs India's admission (30 October 1945).
- General Assembly (one vote each) vs Security Council (five permanent with veto; ten non-permanent for two years, not immediately re-eligible).
- 1965 enlargement (11 to 15 non-permanent) vs the permanent five (unchanged since 1945).
- IMF quota share (US 17.42 per cent) vs IMF vote share (US 16.49 per cent), both as read on imf.org on 4 October 2026.
- GATT (1947, an agreement) vs WTO (1995, an organisation); 164 members (NCERT, 2016) vs 166 (2024 onward).
- Human Rights Commission (NCERT's "UNHRC") vs Human Rights Council (operational 19 June 2006).
- IAEA (a related organisation under its own statute, 1957) vs a UN specialised agency (WHO, UNESCO, ILO); Amnesty and Human Rights Watch (NGOs).
- Secretary-General recommended by the Council vs appointed by the Assembly.
Exam Strategy
- Prelims: memorise NCERT's founding timeline, the nine Secretaries-General with one fact each, the 2005 list, the 1965 enlargement, the IMF vote shares as NCERT prints them (with the date), the budget table's top five and India's 0.8 per cent, and the dated counts above (193; 191; 166).
- Mains: quote Hammarskjöld and Tharoor for an introduction; structure on the two kinds of reform; use NCERT's six criteria and its own objections to each; close with India's claims, dated.
- Avoid: "the UN has 193 members since South Sudan's independence on 9 July 2011" (admitted 14 July); "all P5 must vote yes" (abstention does not veto); "GATT: General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs" (NCERT's slip); "the US holds 16.5 per cent of IMF quotas" (that is its vote share); "WTO decisions are binding on members who voted against" (consensus; disputes are binding through the dispute system); "India has contributed more peacekeepers than the P5 combined" (unsourced; use the ranking).
- Cross-reading: page 3 (the retained chapter on US hegemony: the constraints on US power and the UN); page 7 (cooperative security and the UN as "a creature of its members"); page 9 (the WTO, Seattle 1999 and the Doha Round); the Class XI Political Theory chapter on peace.
Practice Questions
NCERT's exercises, worked
- (a) correct; (b) correct ("a kind of negative power"); (c) wrong: the Secretary-General has no veto; (d) correct.
- (a) wrong: war and peace "are discussed in the General Assembly as well as the Security Council"; (b) correct; (c) correct (a permanent member's negative vote blocks); (d) wrong: the Council has fifteen members, ECOSOC 54, and the specialised agencies have their own memberships.
- (d): "India's growing economic power and stable political system" matches NCERT's criteria (economic power; democracy); nuclear capability is listed by NCERT as an objection, not a qualification.
- (b) the International Atomic Energy Agency.
- (a) the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (NCERT's option reads "Trade and Tariffs").
- (a) to prevent international conflict and to facilitate cooperation among states; (b) the Secretary-General; (c) five permanent and ten non-permanent; (d) António Guterres (until 31 December 2026).
- 1 ECOSOC: (c) economic and social welfare of the member countries; 2 ICJ: (e) resolves disputes between and among member countries; 3 IAEA: (d) safety and peaceful use of nuclear technology; 4 Security Council: (b) preservation of international peace and security; 5 UNHCR: (f) shelter and medical help during emergencies; 6 WTO: (j) facilitates free trade among member countries; 7 IMF: (a) oversees the global financial system; 8 General Assembly: (g) debates and discusses global issues; 9 WHO: (i) good health for all; 10 Secretariat: (h) administration and coordination of UN affairs.
- To preserve international peace and security: it discusses disputes, can authorise sanctions and the use of force, mandates peacekeeping, and recommends the Secretary-General; its decisions bind members, and its five permanent members hold the veto.
- Use NCERT's four claims (one-fifth of humanity; the largest democracy; "virtually all of the initiatives of the UN" and peacekeeping, third-largest contributor of uniformed personnel in February 2026; regular payments) plus economic emergence, and answer NCERT's objections (Pakistan; nuclear status, now reconciled with the 2008 NSG decision; the accommodation of Brazil, Germany, Japan and others through the G4; the African demand through a broad-based expansion).
- The criteria are each contestable (NCERT's six questions); the permanent members will not give up the veto; expansion for one candidate forces expansion for others; regions disagree on who represents them; and the jurisdiction reforms of 2005 (R2P, the Human Rights Council, a definition of terrorism) divide members as sharply as structure does.
- NCERT's answer: it is "not a super-state" but the one place where "all countries in the world can get together", it provides the mechanisms and information that make cooperation possible on problems no state can solve alone, and in a unipolar world it is "a space within which arguments against specific US attitudes and policies are heard"; "without it the world would be worse off".
- For: the Council's composition and veto are the structural core, the 1992 complaints and the 2005 summit both circled back to it, and India's case is about the Council. Against: NCERT's second kind of reform (jurisdiction: peacebuilding, R2P, human rights, development goals, terrorism, democracy) and the budgetary and administrative reforms the West seeks are not about the Council at all, so "reforming the UN" is wider than restructuring it.
Practice (UPSC-pattern, not past papers)
- "An international organisation is not a super-state with authority over its members." Using the Security Council's record since 2022, examine what the UN can and cannot do when a permanent member is a party to a conflict. (GS2, 15 marks)
- State the six criteria NCERT lists for new permanent members of the Security Council and show, for each, why governments have found it "problematic". (GS2, 10 marks)
- The United States has left WHO and the Paris Agreement in 2026 and remains the UN's largest contributor. What does NCERT's analysis of "the UN in a unipolar world" predict about the effect on the organisation? (GS2, 15 marks)
- Compare the IMF's weighted voting with the WTO's consensus rule as mechanisms of decision, using the lapse of the WTO's e-commerce moratorium at Yaoundé in March 2026 as a case. (GS2/GS3, 10 marks)
📦 Revision Capsule
Hard Facts
- Founding: Atlantic Charter August 1941; Declaration by United Nations 1 January 1942 (26 nations); Tehran December 1943; Yalta February 1945; San Francisco April-May 1945; Charter 26 June 1945 (50; Poland 15 October; 51 founders); UN founded 24 October 1945; India 30 October 1945. 193 members (South Sudan, 14 July 2011).
- Council: P5 (US, Russia, UK, France, China); ten non-permanent, two years, no immediate re-election; 11 to 15 in 1965; 2026 non-permanent members as listed; India eight terms, last 2021-22. Veto list about 300 since 1946; latest 17 September 2026.
- Secretaries-General: Lie, Hammarskjöld (Nobel 1961), U Thant, Waldheim, Pérez de Cuéllar, Boutros-Ghali, Annan (Nobel 2001), Ban Ki-moon, Guterres (ninth, from 1 January 2017; term ends 31 December 2026; seven nominees for the succession listed on 4 October 2026, no recommendation).
- Reform: 1992 resolution (three complaints); Annan's inquiry 1 January 1997; six criteria; 2005 World Summit's seven steps; Human Rights Council operational 19 June 2006.
- IMF: NCERT 190 members (19 February 2024), US 16.52 per cent of votes; now 191 (Liechtenstein, 21 October 2024), US quota 17.42 per cent, votes 16.49 per cent. World Bank 1944. WTO 1995 (GATT successor); NCERT 164 (29 July 2016); now 166 (Comoros, Timor-Leste, August 2024); MC14 Yaoundé 26-30 March 2026, e-commerce moratorium lapsed; fisheries agreement in force 15 September 2025. IAEA 1957 ("Atoms for Peace").
- India: peacekeeping rank 3 (February 2026, 4,278); budget 0.8 per cent (2019 scale, 21st); India-EU FTA concluded 27 January 2026, unsigned. US left WHO 22 January 2026 and Paris 27 January 2026.
Core Concepts
- Not a super-state; two reasons for cooperation; two kinds of reform; the veto's logic and its defence; jurisdiction and its contentious list; the UN as an arena, not a balance, in a unipolar world.
Confused Pairs
- Signed vs founded vs India's admission; quota vs vote share; GATT vs WTO; Commission vs Council (human rights); IAEA vs specialised agency; NGO vs UN body; recommended vs appointed.
PYQ Pattern
- Mains GS2 2015 (UNSC seat), 2017 (ECOSOC), 2024 (Counter-Terrorism Committee), 2013 (Bretton Woods), 2014 and 2016 and 2018 (WTO), 2019 (UNESCO and the US). Prelims 2026 (UN agencies and the Nobel Peace Prize).
Sources
- NCERT, Contemporary World Politics (Class XII), ch. 4 "International Organisations", Reprint 2026-27: ncert.nic.in PDF.
- United Nations, Member States; Security Council, Current Members and Countries Elected Members; Selection and Appointment of the Next Secretary-General, Process 2025-2026; Dag Hammarskjöld Library, Vetoes; Security Council resolution 2774 (2025), 24 February 2025.
- UN Department of Peace Operations, Contributions by Country (Ranking), February 2026: peacekeeping.un.org PDF.
- International Monetary Fund, IMF Members' Quotas and Voting Power; press release 24/387, 21 October 2024: imf.org.
- World Trade Organization, What is the WTO?; 14th Ministerial Conference; Electronic commerce work programme; Fisheries subsidies; member pages for Comoros and Timor-Leste.
- PIB, "India and the European Union announce conclusion of negotiations for a Free Trade Agreement", 27 January 2026: pib.gov.in; European Commission, EU-India agreements.
- US Department of State, joint statement on the termination of US membership in WHO, 22 January 2026: state.gov; WHO statement, 24 January 2026: who.int; UN Treaty Collection, depositary notification C.N.71.2025.
