Tension returns to U.S. relationship with U.N.
By Bill Nichols USA TODAY
WASHINGTON — Just a few months ago, it looked as if the long-running feud between the United Nations and the United States finally was coming to a close.A deal was struck in Congress to pay nearly $1 billion in back U.S. dues. U.N. members agreed to reduce Washington's share of the world body's budget. Secretary-General Kofi Annan won praise on Capitol Hill for trying to change the United Nations' image as a bloated bureaucracy controlled by Third World nations that want to beat up on the United States.
But as the U.N. General Assembly opens a new session in New York today, U.S.-U.N. tensions are on the rise again:
U.N. by the numbers
1945 Year established
51 Number of founding countries
189 Member countries today
$2.5 billion Latest 2-year budget
22% U.S. share of budget
(2000-2001)
8,989 Permanent employees
15 Current peacekeeping/humanitarian missions
6 U.N. divisions:(General Assembly, Security Council, Economic and Social Council, Trusteeship Council, Secretariat, World Court)
5 Permanent members of Security Council:
(Britain, China, France, Russia, United States)
Source: United Nations Information Center, USA TODAY research
The deal on U.S. back dues has unraveled and might not be fixed before President Bush addresses the world body on Sept. 24.
The ejection of the United States from the U.N. Human Rights Commission last spring and the controversy over the just-ended U.N. conference on racism in Durban, South Africa, have upset even U.N. supporters in Congress. Secretary of State Colin Powell boycotted the conference because Muslim nations used it to accuse Israel of racism against Palestinians.
Many U.N. members are angry over Bush's go-it-alone policies, including his opposition to more than a half-dozen treaties and his push for a missile-defense system.
A new poll released Monday found that 70% of Americans have a positive view of the United Nations. But the poll, commissioned by the United Nations Foundation, also found that Americans are split about whether Congress should authorize payment of $826 million in back dues.
In the poll of 800 registered voters, 43% said the United States should not pay all its back dues, while 53% said it should. The foundation was created to help administer philanthropist Ted Turner's $1 billion gift to the world body.
Both the United Nations and the Bush administration are to blame for the breakdown in relations, Heritage Foundation foreign policy analyst Brett Schaeffer says. The administration has been clumsy in explaining some of its policies, while events such as the racism conference "portray the U.N. in its worst possible light," he says.
Other diplomatic experts put most of the blame on Bush, who has named prominent U.N.-bashers to senior posts, such as John Bolton, undersecretary of State for arms control, non-proliferation and international security.
In a 1998 Washington Times column on Washington losing its vote in the General Assembly if it didn't pay its back dues, Bolton wrote that many Republicans "not only do not care about losing the General Assembly vote but actually see it as a 'make my day' outcome."
Cato Institute foreign policy analyst Ted Galen Carpenter says administration officials "barely tolerate the United Nations. Their only element of doubt is whether it is a farce or a menace."
Derek Chollet, a former aide to Richard Holbrooke, President Clinton's U.N. ambassador, says Bush has squandered an opportunity to follow through on a Holbrooke-brokered deal to pay U.S. arrears run up over the past decade. "It was a no-brainer. But they didn't follow through," Chollet says.
Administration officials say they have fought to make sure the back-dues deal remains in place.
Both the House and Senate have voted to release a second payment of $582 million in back dues. But House conservatives, led by Majority Whip Tom DeLay, R-Texas, have linked the payment to passage of legislation shielding U.S. citizens from the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court.
The court, which would be the world's first global criminal tribunal, won President Clinton's endorsement during his final weeks in office. Bush opposes the court, but his aides fear DeLay's amendment would curb the president's ability to conduct foreign policy.
The administration is trying to work out a compromise with GOP leaders in the House, but officials worry that it won't come together before Bush addresses the United Nations in 2 weeks.
Bush's foreign policy team denies responsibility for a souring of U.S.-U.N. relations. It says the anti- U.S. and anti-Israel tone of the racism conference and the decision to boot the United States from the Human Rights Commission demonstrate what critics dislike about the United Nations: developing nations, many governed by non-democratic regimes, ganging up on the United States.
"Those two events clearly damaged the U.N.'s reputation," Carpenter says.
The administration blames the lost U.S. seat on the 53-member Human Rights Commission on anti- U.S. sentiment. Foreign diplomats see it as a reaction to Bush's decisions to abandon several long-standing treaties.
Bush and Powell will try to mend fences during U.N visits this month. The administration also hopes to finally have a full-time U.N. ambassador soon; U.S. officials say they have been hampered by the absence of one. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee has scheduled a confirmation hearing Wednesday for career diplomat John Negroponte.
Negroponte's nomination has been held up by Democrats, who question whether he ignored evidence of government-sanctioned death squads in Honduras in the 1980s, when he was ambassador there. He denies wrongdoing.
It will take more than a new ambassador, however, to improve U.S.-U.N. relations, critics say. Bush will have to exert U.S. influence every chance he gets.
Chollet says, "The last years of the Clinton administration showed that if the U.S. is going to lead, it can steer the U.N. in the right direction and at least temper the things that the U.N. is going to do." |
