🇺🇳 Formal reform of the UN Charter is currently deadlocked. What my book highlights however is the informal nature of Security Council negotiations and how little of the process is governed by the UN Charter or formal rules.

Two areas where there is clear potential for informal reform: colllective action among elected members and penholding.

✨ Groups of elected members, with a common position, hold more power than they often wield. Ian Martin has highlighted a group of five elected members that have worked together on Yemen to submit joint proposals. @richardgowan1.bsky.social has highlighted a "nascent ‘E10 culture" of collaboration.

🌟 Penholding is an informal part of negotiations akin to 'political ownership'. In 2022 the UK, the US, and France were penholders for 73% of topics. Since the penholder system is informal it can change, as a revolving group of elected members demonstrated on the Syrian humanitarian track.

✨ There is potential to move beyond the dominance of permanent members, whether via collectivity among elected members, or broader access to penholding, neither of which require any formal amendment to the UN Charter.

💪 States beyond the P3 hold more power than they often recognise in the Security Council. These are informal reforms that show promise which can circumvent the deadlocked debates over formal UN reform.