Introduction

World leaders attending the Summit of the Future in September 2024 The Pact also includes the issue of Security Council reform in the section
adopted the Pact for the Future. The document agreed through intergov- on Transforming Global Governance (Chapter 5). In that chapter, member
ernmental negotiations led by Germany and Namibia is meant to adapt states call for an enlarged Security Council that balances “representative-
international cooperation and institutions to today’s realities and the chal- ness and effectiveness” and for an effort to “improve and democratise the
lenges of the future. working methods of the Security Council and strengthen its relationship
The Pact outlines 56 actions and is divided into five chapters: 1. Sustain- with the General Assembly”. While the structure of the Council and the use
able development and financing for development; 2. International peace and of veto are primarily addressed through the General Assembly’s intergov-
security; 3. Science, technology and innovation and digital cooperation; 4. ernmental negotiations, the Council is more directly engaged in refining its
Youth and future generations; and 5. Transforming global governance. This own working methods, and there have been several advancements in this
policy paper mainly focuses on the key action points of most relevance to regard in recent years.
the Security Council, which are contained in the chapter on international
peace and security (Chapter 2). It provides an analysis of the Council’s activ- Overview of the Policy Paper
ity related to the action points and offers a menu of recommendations that Following this short introduction, this policy paper provides an analysis of
Council members can pursue in implementing the Pact. It also connects the Security Council’s activities regarding the peace and security aspects
some of the ideas in the Pact with A New Agenda for Peace and highlights of the Pact and presents recommendations for how the Council can build
some areas that were not included. upon related action points in the Pact.
The paper is not designed to be an exhaustive analysis of the interna-
Background: From A New Agenda for Peace to Chapter 2 of tional peace and security aspects of the Pact. We have chosen to focus on
the Pact for the Future some of the key areas where the Council has already been active or areas
In July 2023, UN Secretary-General António Guterres released A New Agenda where there appears to be the potential for greater Council involvement. It
for Peace. This was one of 11 policy briefs connected to his 2021 report, Our should be noted as well that the paper briefly references other parts of the
Common Agenda, reflecting his vision for the future of multilateralism and Pact, where these are relevant to the Council’s work. Further, it includes a
intended to feed into the UN’s Summit of the Future in September 2024. In discussion of climate, peace and security, which was removed from the
keeping with UN General Assembly resolution 76/307 of 8 September 2022, Pact at the end. However, this topic was a focus of the negotiations, and
the summit aspired to reinvigorate the multilateral system and culminated notwithstanding its controversies, we anticipate climate, peace and security
in the adoption of the Pact for the Future. will remain a significant area of interest for many Council members.
A New Agenda for Peace represented the Secretary-General’s ideas for The paper is organised in three clusters. The first cluster focuses on
member states to prevent conflict and advance peace and security. Several “Protection and Participation” issues. In this section, we concentrate on
of the Secretary-General’s ideas from A New Agenda for Peace found their the following areas:
way into Chapter 2 of the Pact. Some did not survive the bruising negotia- • Protection of Civilians
tions. Others were watered down. In the end, what emerged was nonethe- • Women, Peace and Security; and
less a wide-ranging commitment to addressing traditional and emerging • Youth, Peace and Security.
threats to international peace and security in keeping with the principles The second cluster explores the “Peace Continuum” with a discussion of:
of international law, including the UN Charter. This was no small feat at a • Conflict Prevention
time of increasing geopolitical tensions that threaten the effectiveness of • Peace Operations
the multilateral peace and security system. • Peacebuilding; and
The international peace and security chapter demonstrates the con- • Climate change, peace and security.
tinued commitment of member states to promoting and refining many of The third cluster focuses on New Potential Domains of Conflict, including:
the traditional tools of international peace and security that have histori- • New and Emerging Technologies
cally been within the Council’s purview: for example, conflict prevention • Security and Use of Information and Communication Technologies; and
measures, peace operations, and support for humanitarian assistance. • Outer Space Security.
Other thematic issues that have become a focus of the Council’s work in
recent decades—such as women, peace and security; youth, peace and The objective of the policy paper is to stimulate thinking on how the Secu-
security; counter-terrorism; and peacebuilding—also feature prominently rity Council can innovate, break impasses, and solve problems at a very
in the chapter. difficult time in its history. Our hope is that this policy paper will enhance
As well, the threat posed by new and emerging domains of conflict understanding of the Council’s recent activity in some of the areas covered
is included in Chapter 2 of the Pact. The Security Council has begun dis- in the Pact and offer recommendations that will prove useful to members
cussing such threats, although only in cursory fashion and not without who want to build a future based on the peace and security ideas outlined
reservations from some of the major powers about whether the Council is in the Pact.
the appropriate forum for grappling with such issues. Although the negotia-
tions on many areas were not easy, there were some notable achievements.
Robust language calling for the elimination of nuclear weapons and the
strengthening of the international architecture governing non-proliferation
and disarmament was incorporated in the Pact. This seems to be significant
in the context of heightened rivalry among the nuclear powers.

4  The Future of the Pact Recommendations for Security Council Action