President Obama’s vote for India, then, should be a reasonable choice. It is a vibrant Asian democracy and a major contributor of troops to UN peace operations. It is also an economic counterweight to China and looked to by a number of smaller nations in Southeast Asia as offering a potential military balance to China’s fast-growing naval power…

African diplomats raise Nigeria and South Africa as potential UNSC permanent members, but Nigeria’s democracy is fragile, despite it being a major contributor to UN peacekeeping operations. South Africa, post-Mandela, has troubling aspects of its government, and slender military forces.

In Latin America, Mexico contributes much more to the UN budget than Brazil, but Brazil is a booming would-be superpower that considers itself worthy of permanent UNSC membership. Meanwhile, Germany and Italy are substantial donors to the UN. Both argue that they have as much claim to UNSC permanent seats as Britain or France.