Description
This paper critically examines the evolving concept of "special responsibilities" through the lens of the UN Security Council’s ongoing legitimacy challenges. During a period of profound shifts in global governance, it is argued that the traditional, power-centric understanding of special responsibilities, primarily vested in the P5, is facing significant erosion and contestation. Scholarship on the concept of special responsibilities has so far been relatively limited when it comes to fully examining the impact of recent shifts towards a more multipolar world order. In response, the paper argues that the principle of special responsibilities is now being directly challenged at multiple levels, both in international and domestic forums. To support this argument, the article focuses on three interconnected challenges: increased demand for equality and representation, the rise of unilateralism and nationalist politics, and division over how to respond to new and emerging security threats. All three of these challenges together have begun to significantly erode the structures and function of the Security Council as well as undermine support for the principle of special responsibilities at the global level.
