Bloodless Coup

No takers, eh? Well, 2 of the countries are rotating off it this year. Argentina will be ending its 8th term on the Council on Dec. 31, and Japan will be ending its 9th term on the same day. The 3rd country is Brazil, whose 9th term on the Council stretched from 2004-2005.

Are Argentina and Brazil on at the same time, or do they rotate (between only the two of them) the "Latin American" seat?

I would have guessed Japan, but not the other two.

Latin America and the Caribbean have always had two seats on the Council, and their seats are staggered (unlike the 2 seats of the Western Europe, Canada, Australi, NZ group whose members rotate on and off simultaneously - Italy and Belgium will replace Greece and Denmark on January 1). So I'm sure that at least a few times Argentina and Brazil have been on the Council at the same time for a year until one of them rotated off. Btw, one of the other most frequently elected states is from that region too - Colombia's been on it 6 times, though only twice in the last 35 years.

And in case anyone's missed it and interested, South Korea is dropping out this year's race for the open Asia seat on the Security Council, in order to focus on their campaign to get a South Korean elected Secretary-General. So the seat currently held by Japan will go to either Indonesia or Nepal on January 1. Given the instability in Nepal, I'd have to think Indonesia will win that race.