In May 2013, some 20 UN member states launched a new initiative to improve the working methods of the UN Security Council. Dubbed “ACT”, the initiative aims for greater accountability, coherence, and transparency in the Council’s activities. This publication gauges this effort against the backdrop of previous stalled attempts to reform Council working methods and its composition. It concludes that ACT’s modest and seemingly technical proposals cut to the highly-political core issues of who controls representation of member states interests and who controls the reform agenda at the UN.