*EPF317 03/29/00
Text: Welch on the U.S. and International Organizations
(From electronic journal "U.S. Foreign Policy Agenda") (1990)

(The United Nations is "an indispensable institution" in which the United States "will continue to play a vital and active role," says Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs David Welch. "As a founder, host, and major supporter of the UN, we will continue to work to strengthen the organization and to build international support for needed reforms," he says. The following article by Welch is included in the March issue of the State Department electronic journal "U.S. Foreign Policy Agenda" which addresses the topic, "The Making of U.S. Foreign Policy." The Internet address for the journal is: "http://www.usinfo.state.gov/journals/journals.htm".)

THE UNITED NATIONS: AN ARENA FOR INTERNATIONAL LEADERSHIP
By David Welch

The United States was a leader in the effort to create the United Nations and has played a major role in the institution since its founding. The UN Charter was drawn up in San Francisco in 1945, and the UN has had its headquarters in New York City for more than 50 years on land donated to the UN by the Rockefeller family. U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt is credited with coining the term "United Nations."

As Secretary of State Madeleine Albright recently remarked, "The dream that brought the UN together is as alive today as it has ever been." The central purposes for which the UN was established -- to maintain international peace and security; to foster cooperation in solving international economic, social, cultural, and humanitarian problems; to promote respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms; to develop friendly relations among nations; and to be a center for harmonizing the actions of nations in attaining common goals -- are as important today as they were in the closing days of World War II.

Global interdependence is now a well-established fact of life. Barriers between nations and people are being torn down; trade, technology, people, and ideas cross borders in all regions of the world. Yet as these contacts increase, we are all more vulnerable to each other's problems. Every day brings potential threats to peace and security, including armed conflict, terrorism, drug trafficking, economic turmoil, disease, weapons of mass destruction, hunger, humanitarian catastrophes, abuses of human rights, and contamination of the natural environment. No nation, powerful or otherwise, can solve these problems alone -- or afford to ignore them.

The UN serves as an effective, though at times imperfect, means of developing consensus and fostering collaboration. If there were no UN, we would find it considerably more difficult to resolve conflicts peacefully and to build international support for a wide range of important U.S. foreign policy objectives. The UN provides an institutional structure for countries to exchange their views, cooperate on complex tasks, and set standards that reflect common values.

Here are just a few examples of why the work of the UN and other international organizations is important to U.S. foreign policy:

-- Peace and Stability: The U.S. -- which provides the most peacekeeping funds and the most civilian police, which supports NATO back-up of UN operations, and which is a permanent member of the UN Security Council -- plays a leading role in UN efforts to maintain peace, promote democracy, and promote human rights around the world.

-- International Security: The U.S. works with other countries through the UN to address threats such as terrorism, nuclear proliferation, narcotics trafficking, and crime.

-- Health and Environmental Concerns: The work of the World Health Organization, Joint UN Program on HIV/AIDS, UN Environment Program, and other organizations helps protect people from disease, pollution, global climate change, and other threats.

-- Humanitarian Assistance: The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Food and Agriculture Organization, World Food Program, and UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) are among the UN agencies at the core of the international system for helping people endangered by conflict, natural disasters, hunger, and other threats throughout the world. Of all member states, U.S. contributions to these humanitarian efforts are by far the largest.

-- Transportation Safety: Safety and security standards for air and sea transportation are enforced by the International Civil Aviation Organization and the International Maritime Organization.

The General Assembly (currently with 189 member states) and the Security Council of the United Nations are the most important international bodies in the world. In no other forum do nations assemble in such quantity and diversity to express their positions and coordinate their efforts.

The U.S. has its most senior diplomat in the field at the UN, with both cabinet rank and substantial responsibility for U.S. foreign policy. Many permanent representatives of member states have served as foreign ministers or other top-level officials of their countries. So in the UN, we are able to transact important international business at the decision-making level.

The U.S. has long attached great value to its participation in the UN. It would be difficult to find a more distinguished group of Americans than those who have served as U.S. Permanent Representative to the UN. Among them are Edward Stettinius, Henry Cabot Lodge, Adlai Stevenson, Arthur Goldberg, George Bush, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Andrew Young, Jeane Kirkpatrick, Madeleine Albright, Bill Richardson, and current Permanent Representative Richard C. Holbrooke.

In Washington, D.C., my bureau, the Bureau of International Organization Affairs in the Department of State, is the focal point for the development and implementation of U.S. policy in the United Nations, the specialized UN agencies, and various other international organizations. The U.S. Mission to the United Nations, located across the street from UN Headquarters in New York, keeps the Department of State informed of events at the UN and makes recommendations as to what course of action the U.S. should pursue. Information about topics under consideration at the UN is frequently relayed to U.S. embassies throughout the world.

Under the U.S. Constitution, responsibility for the conduct of our foreign affairs is divided among the branches of the federal government. This "separation of powers" concept is fundamental to our democratic system. The Department of State is part of the Executive Branch, and we constantly work with the Legislative Branch -- the U.S. Congress -- on the best ways to carry out U.S. foreign policy in international organizations.

The benefits of active U.S. participation and leadership in the UN were clearly in evidence during the Persian Gulf crisis. In 1991, the Security Council proved crucial in developing a broad coalition of large and small nations that acted together in opposition to Saddam Hussein's unprovoked aggression against Kuwait.

More recently, when the U.S. held the rotating presidency of the Security Council in January 2000, Ambassador Holbrooke declared it "The Month of Africa." He introduced far-reaching initiatives calling on the international community to address long-standing problems of the continent, including the spread of HIV/AIDS, violent ethnic and political conflicts, refugees, hunger, poverty, human rights violations, lack of educational opportunity, and economic marginalization. Top U.S. political leaders, such as the Vice President, the Secretary of State, and the chair and members of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee participated in Security Council deliberations during the month. The high-level government interest was mirrored in the U.S. private sector and media.

Americans also hold many leadership positions in the UN itself and in its specialized agencies. These currently include the Under Secretary General for Management and the Executive Directors of two important humanitarian agencies, the World Food Program and UNICEF. We believe it is in our best interests to have well-qualified American citizens serve the UN at all levels, and to be represented on committees that deal with issues of international importance.

Clearly, then, the U.S. government views the UN as an indispensable institution. And American citizens, representing a wide range of political views, generally support our leadership role in the UN. They recognize that the UN can be central in resolving major international crises and building a more stable world. Some Americans have occasionally expressed fears that the UN may become a "world government" and threaten U.S. sovereignty. These apprehensions are misguided. The UN is a cooperative assembly of sovereign states; it does not and cannot exercise sovereignty over any member state.

Leadership of an institution is demonstrated, in part, by the commitment of financial resources. The U.S. is by far the largest contributor to the UN system, with current annual contributions of well over $2 billion. This includes assessed contributions to the regular UN budget and peacekeeping operations and to the many important UN specialized and affiliated agencies, such as the Food and Agriculture Organization, World Health Organization, International Labor Organization, and International Atomic Energy Agency. The U.S. also provides more than $1 billion annually in voluntary contributions to UN programs in such areas as emergency relief, democracy and human rights, and environmental protection.

Another responsibility of leadership is to ensure that an institution is operated in an efficient, open, and accountable manner. Under the Clinton Administration, the U.S. has led an effort to improve the management and stabilize the finances of the United Nations and its agencies. The U.S. supports the initiatives of the Secretary General to bring about a more transparent, responsive, and consultative approach to management. Recent accomplishments in UN reform include:

-- A more disciplined budgeting process, in place of continual growth of the UN budget.

-- Establishment of an independent internal inspector general's office, to discover and remedy shortcomings in the administration of UN programs.

-- Improvements in the planning and management of peacekeeping operations.

-- Significant reductions in unneeded staff positions and in the number of conferences and meetings.

A well-staffed and well-managed UN enables the organization to meet its global challenges more efficiently. These improvements in management, and others that are ongoing, merit the support of all member states.

In late 1999, the U.S. Congress passed, and President Clinton signed into law, legislation designed to enable the U.S. to make overdue payments to the UN and other international organizations. The full amount of this funding is $926 million, which is in addition to our annual assessed and voluntary contributions. In order for the $926 million to be fully paid out, Congress stipulated that certain reform conditions must be met. This has raised some questions and concerns, but the fact is that the U.S. Congress, the elected representatives of the American people, controls the federal budget. The Congress can and does attach conditions to the manner in which U.S. taxpayers' money is spent for domestic programs and for a variety of international activities, including those of the UN.

One of the most important steps that must be taken, we believe, is a revision in the UN scale of assessments; that is, the contributions from member states to the UN budget. These are based on each country's Gross National Product (GNP) as a share of the world's GNP. Reform of the scale of assessments ceiling has not taken place since 1972 and is now long overdue. Since the last adjustment, 55 new member states have joined the UN. There have been significant shifts in members' ability to pay; many countries with fast-growing economies are now capable of increasing their contributions. We need a new scale that reflects today's economic and political realities, a scale in which the cost of supporting the UN is shared somewhat more broadly in the international community.

The United States will continue to play a vital and active role in the United Nations. As a founder, host, and major supporter of the UN, we will continue to work to strengthen the organization and to build international support for needed reforms. Our active participation in the UN reflects our strong commitment to an institution that, in the words of Secretary Albright, "brings nations closer together around basic principles of democracy, liberty, and law that will lift the lives of people everywhere."

(Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: www.usinfo.state.gov.)
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