Back to basics: Africa’s bid for two permanent UNSC seats (with Amb. Martin Kimani)

Back to basics: Africa’s bid for two permanent UNSC seats (with Amb. Martin Kimani)

From Into Africa by CSIS | Center for Strategic and International Studies

September 11, 2025 · 60 min

About this episode

The episode explores Africa's ongoing efforts to secure two permanent seats on the UN Security Council and the implications of this bid.

Since this episode aired last year, we’re still dreaming of a just and representative global order. Catherine Nzuki was joined by Ambassador Martin Kimani, PhD, the Executive Director of New York University’s Center on International Cooperation. He was previously the Permanent Representative of Kenya to the United Nations (UN). In this episode, we take a deep dive into Africa’s bid for two permanent seats on the UN Security Council (UNSC) and the long road to get there. We discuss how long Africa has been pushing for these seats (3:40); the procedure to create the two permanent seats (7:00); why the process of selecting which African state will occupy those seats could cause infighting (15:20); and two scenarios for how these seats could be distributed (19:40). We zoom out to discuss the deficit of visionary contemporary leaders (30:18); the types of reforms that the African Union needs (34:42); Africa’s demographic dividend (36:00); Africa in the G20 (42:30); and finally, reordering global geography in line with Africa’s own interests (45:00).

People in this episode

Host: Catherine Nzuki

Guest: Ambassador Martin Kimani

Topics covered

  • UN Security Council
  • Africa
  • permanent seats
  • global order
  • African Union reforms
  • demographic dividend
  • G20

Keywords

  • global governance
  • international cooperation
  • leadership
  • geopolitics

Mentioned in this episode

Places: Africa, Kenya, Africa

More episodes of Into Africa

Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the Into Africa podcast page.