The United Nations Security Council is among the most powerful and influential bodies on the planet. Last Tuesday the 173 voting nations of the General Assembly chose Ireland to sit on that council for the two-year term beginning in 2001. This is a singular honour, indicative of the high regard in which this nation is held.

Tuesday's result was the culmination of three years of concerted campaign work. While the 1996 Dick Spring White Paper on Foreign Affairs contained the suggestion that Ireland pursue membership of the Security Council, it was when the present Government assumed office in the summer of 1997 that the decision was made to campaign actively to that end. This began with the establishment of the UN Security Council Campaign (SECCO) Unit in the Department of Foreign Affairs.

I appointed Richard Ryan as permanent UN Ambassador to head our lobbying efforts in the United Nations itself, while Ambassador Mary Whelan led the efforts in Dublin. In addition, six of our ambassadors aided the campaign on a part-time basis as special envoys to areas such as Africa, South America and Oceania.

In May of 1998, having written to more than 180 foreign ministers informing them of our candidacy and formally seeking their support, the campaign was stepped up a gear. The Taoiseach, Tanaiste and other Government members from that time on used every suitable opportunity to raise our candidacy with other governments, as did members of the Opposition.

As Minister, the campaign demanded and deserved a considerable proportion of my time and energy. We could never actually gauge the extent of our progress with any degree of certainty.

In September 1999 at the UN General Assembly, a young Panamanian was one of the 70 or so foreign ministers I met. We had no particular claim on this vote. However, to my surprise, we were greeted warmly and before I could even start making my pitch, this very charming minister informed us that he had at least one Cork ancestor. As a result he had a great fondness for Ireland and the ensuing interview was all about developments in Ireland.

Although we never got to talk about the Security Council, we left with Panama's vote securely in our pocket. Another example of support was from Ethiopia, which I visited recently with Senator Michael Lanigan. There we found a deep appreciation of the continuity of Ireland's Development Aid Programme over a difficult period in their history. Also the Prime Minister specifically singled out the role played in recent times by Minister of State Liz O'Donnell in ensuring this continuity of funding for bilateral aid projects.

I was confident that the US and the UK would vote for us, mainly because of the Taoiseach's genuinely close relationship with Bill Clinton and Tony Blair. Basically, though, like all of those who had been involved in the campaign, I remained in the dark until I received news of Tuesday's result in a jubilant call from a Foreign Affairs official phoning from Downing Street.

The focus now should shift to the opportunity which membership bestows upon us. Under the UN Charter, the Security Council has primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security. It has uniquely far-reaching powers and can provide the legal basis for collective action by the international community to deal with threats to peace and acts of aggression. The council is mandated to act on behalf of the UN as a whole, and as a member of the council Ireland will have a genuine opportunity to influence world affairs.

As a small, neutral nation, without the taint of past imperialism and with an excellent reputation in the areas of peacekeeping and development aid, we have a real chance now to undertake a reforming, progressive role in the Security Council.

We should continue in our demands for an enlarged, more representative council with 25 instead of 15 seats. We should push for the right of veto, which seriously impedes the council's effectiveness, to be examined and for a generally more open and representative Security Council.

In the wake of Tuesday's result, the Taoiseach announced that Ireland would take such a reforming approach during our term. The roots of this approach are to be found in de Valera's work at the League of Nations and, later, in Frank Aiken's resolute work at the United Nations during the 1950s.

De Valera and Aiken took their republican traditions to a global stage. That levelling tradition, which holds as its ideal a society where all citizens receive an equal opportunity to realise their full potential, informed their global vision. They spoke out for the rights of small nations against imperialism and forcefully rejected the proliferation of armaments.

In Mr Aiken's first address to the UN he pleaded for an end to the dissemination of nuclear weapons. His 1958 UN motion, condemning nuclear proliferation, was the genesis of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, signed in Moscow in 1968. Frank Aiken was the first statesman to sign up to the agreement, in honour of his, and Ireland's, role in its inception.

EVER conscious of this tradition, we must strive now to continue it during our term on the Security Council. In 1998 I had the opportunity to launch an international drive to rekindle efforts towards nuclear disarmament - "Towards a Nuclear Free World, The Need for a New Agenda".

In a move co-sponsored by New Zealand, Sweden, South Africa, Brazil, Egypt, Mexico and Slovenia, we sought to strengthen the non-proliferation regime and give fresh impetus to nuclear disarmament. We should maintain this vigorous position on the Security Council.

It is imperative that we use this opportunity to advance the cause of smaller nations. As de Valera spoke out for Abyssinia and as Aiken spoke out for an independent Tibet, we should be willing to adopt an active and independent voice for the rights of small nations. We should aim to build a system of regional and global relations within which the rights of small nations are given equal weight to the larger, stronger nations.

As we supported the cause of an independent Tibet in the face of strenuous Russian opposition and spoke out on the conduct of the Algerian War, much to the ire of the French, we should be vocal in our support of the smaller, poorer nations.

As a nation colonised, occupied, subjected to rebellion, civil war and sectarian hatred we have the opportunity now to bring the commitment we undertook in the Good Friday agreement to partnership, equality and mutual respect to a global audience.

John O'Shea of Goal has urged that we use our status as Security Council members to help alleviate the suffering of others and he should be supported in this view. In September the Taoiseach publicly committed Ireland to meeting the UN target spending of 0.7 per cent of GNP on Official Development Assistance by 2007. We must now encourage others to follow.

Tuesday's result was a victory for Irish diplomacy. The challenge now is to utilise that victory for the good of the United Nations and the world at large.

David Andrews was Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs from 1977 to 1979; Minister for Foreign Affairs 1992-'93 and again from 1997 until he retired in January. Andrews on Saturday will appear each week.