eli5..Why is it that the UN security council has 5 permanent members who can veto a resolution and what criteria did they use to choose those countries?
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When UN was being founded, who would be in the Security Council and how it would work was one of the key issues. The countries that set up these discussions and were going to be part of the SC were the four major allied countries – USSR, USA, UK, China – and these countries were generally speaking also central in the founding of the whole UN. Ultimately these four countries’ delegates decided who would be in the council. France was added, and some others that were proposed like Brazil were not.
It’s not really a democratic process in any sense. The four initial members were simply the biggest post-war powers, so it was really up to them how it would work. If they wouldn’t have gotten their way, or at least get a good enough compromise, they would simply have withdrawn. Nowadays, these countries want to keep the veto and without it, they would simply not participate.
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