Austin Bay has a good article with some clear, cogent recommendations for reforming the United Nations (HT: RealClearPolitics).
My favorite passage from the article:
"Though the Bush administration probably favors keeping a weakened Annan --floundering, continuing to make fool mistakes until his term is up next year -- the first reform is to force Annan to resign, now. His refusal to resign is ego-crat at its worst. The second reform is to prosecute the thieves. The third is to end the ridiculous requirement that jobs be distributed by nationality, a feature that feeds "connected elites" into U.N. staff positions instead of experts hired on merit.
As for real reform: (1) strip France of permanent U.N. Security Council (UNSC) status; (2) keep Russia as a permanent member, but with no veto (all it has are nukes); (3) add India and Japan as permanent UNSC members (though with no veto). Now Britain wields the European veto, China the Asian and America the real veto."
I like the way Austin Bay thinks...whether or not these recommendations (or portions thereof) actually happen remains.
BTW: Austin Bay is a retired Army Colonel (see about).
There are some great comments regarding this article here. I especially liked Dave Schuler's comment regarding UN membership requirements.