The Real Security Council

1. China
2. United States
3. India
4. Russia
5. Brazil
6. Japan
7. Germany
8. Indonesia
9. United Kingdom
10. France
11. Mexico
12. Pakistan
13. Italy
14. Bangladesh
15. Nigeria

Democracy means one person, one vote. To have a clear idea about who really counts in an increasingly democratic world, study and absorb the list above. These nations are home to 65% of the world’s people. The rest of the world, combined, has 35%. These same nations account for 70% of the world’s Gross Domestic Product, measured in Purchasing Power Parity terms. The rest of the world, combined, accounts for only 30% of total GDP. Every country on the list is one of the ten biggest in population, one of the ten biggest in GDP, or both, except for Mexico, which is 11th in population and 14th in GDP, and so also belongs on a list of the top fifteen.

Beyond population and economic clout, these fifteen nations include seven of the world’s nine nuclear powers, and seven of the twenty nations with the largest oil reserves (Indonesia, a nation on this list, also has significant oil reserves).

If these fifteen countries made up the Security Council, the UN might actually become a meaningful body. Yes, the UN Security Council's five permanent members are all listed on "The Real Security Council." But how meaningful is a UN Security Council that excludes India, Brazil, Germany, Indonesia, Mexico, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Nigeria, or that has France and the United Kingdom but not Italy, or that this year drops Japan as a member?

Why does the UN Security Council instead listen to Congo Brazzaville, Denmark, Ghana, Greece, Peru, Qatar, Slovakia, and Tanzania? I mean, who really cares what they think about war in the Middle East? Why do we give space to these smaller countries? Because the UN isn't about One Person, One Vote. It's about One Nation, One Vote, treating Qatar the same as India.

And while we're looking, what about the "Group of 8" so-called economic powers, seven European-dominated nations plus honorary European Japan, a group that includes Canada instead of Mexico, and skips non-European economic giants China, India, and Brazil? Embarrassing, huh?

Let’s start, right now, viewing the world as it truly is. Our planet is dominated by the fifteen countries that make up “The Real Security Council.” If they came together in one room and worked together, the UN itself could work.

Notes for table above:

Pop: Population 2006, from International Development Bank at
http://www.census.gov/cgi-bin/ipc/idbrank.pl
PPP GDP: Purchasing Power Parity Gross Domestic Product, from World Bank, PPP GDP 2005 at
http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/DATASTATISTICS/0,
,contentMDK:20399244~menuPK:1390200~pagePK:64133150~piPK:
64133175~theSitePK:239419,00.html
Nuclear Bonus: Nuclear powers have five points deducted from their “Total Score” column (lower the score, higher the ranking), see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_powers
Oil Res.: Oil Reserves, in billions of barrels, from
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0872964.html
Oil Bonus: Top 20 countries placed in groups of four based on their oil reserves, with five points for top four countries, dropping to one point for countries ranked 16-20 (points deducted from their “Total Score” column; the lower the final point total, the higher the ranking).
Total Score: Total of rank for population plus rank for PPP GDP, minus bonuses (if applicable) for being a nuclear power and/or for having significant oil reserves. This means that countries with the lowest total score are at the top of the rankings--the lower the score, the higher the ranking.