15.02.2018 | Veronika Bílková

The Decline of the Big Five

Is the supremacy of the Big Five, inherited from the mid-20th century, on the brink of its decline? Have the Big Five started to lose informal privileges which have been bestowed upon them over the past 70 years? Will that be followed by the reduction in, or even total abolition of, formal privileges? While answering all these questions in the affirmative would certainly be too audacious, there are signs indicating that the privileged position of the Big Five is no longer accepted without reserves. Veronika Bílková analyzes this current trend in her reflection.

By virtue of Article 2(1) of the UN Charter, the United Nations, and the international community more broadly, are “based on the principle of the sovereign equality of all its Members”. In practice, however, some Members have always been more equal than others and that not only in terms of factual power but also in terms of legal privileges. This is primarily the case of the so called Big Five, the winners of the World War II – China, France, the USSR/Russia, the United Kingdom and the US.

Full reflection available here.

Czech version available here.




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