Monitoring Policy Making at the United Nations |
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Nation Magazine Editorial by James A. Paul
"Deadbeat Nation"
James A. Paul
Executive Director, Global Policy Forum
The Nation magazine
April 15, 1996
pages 4 & 5
The United Nations is slipping into deep financial trouble and may be forced to radically downsize or even close its doors, unless an emergency rescue package is developed soon. At the end of 1995, ninety-one states -- nearly half the total membership -- had not paid their dues, leaving the organization with more than $2.3 billion in debts. The United States owed the lion's share, exceeding $1.2 billion. According to Under Secretary General Joseph Connor, the U.N. has long since exhausted its scant reserves and has only kept operating by a desperate system of financial juggling. Sometime after mid year, the U.N. could run out of cash entirely
For months, UN headquarters has been awash with rumors of staff layoffs and deep cuts in programs and services. Forced to pull back from commitments in peacekeeping, human rights and humanitarian relief, Secretary General Boutros-Ghali proposed on December 18 an emergency session of the General Assembly to address the crisis. A harsh new budget, adopted acrimoniously on December 23, imposed (at U.S. insistence) a 10 percent cut in real terms.
On February 6, Boutros-Ghali spoke to delegates at UN headquarters, warning that the UN stands "at the edge of insolvency." In Washington on the same day, a spokesman for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee stated that Chairman Jesse Helms and his compatriots would demand a cut of "at least" half in the U.N. budget. "It is a vast engine for the promotion of socialism . . . and anti-American propaganda," insisted Helms. On Capitol Hill, an orgy of anti-U.N. legislation, sponsored by right-wing Republicans, offered up dozens of bills and amendments restricting participation in the U.N. and its various organs.
In spite of endless Congressional talk about the U.N. as a "huge, bloated bureaucracy" and a threat to U.S. sovereignty, the UN can barely act without US assent and it's worldwide staff of 50,000 numbers numbers less than the civil service of the State of Wyoming. The new chief of Internal Oversight, Karl Paschke, appointed at US insistence in late 1994, found surprisingly little waste and fraud. The UN regular budget, at $1.3 billion, could scarcely buy a B-2 bomber, and totals less than a tenth of one percent of US federal spending.
For many months, stung by Congressional conservatives, the Clinton Administration has pressured the U.N. to adopt a radical restructuring, cutting back most sharply on those social and economic programs accused by the right of coddling the world's poor with outdated "global Keynesianism." A draconian plan, submitted by U.S. ambassador Madeleine Albright on February 21, proposed downsizing the U.N. to "limited core functions." According to one reliable source, the US even sent ten officials to the U.N. to begin planning these cuts. Many enraged delegates charged the U.S. with financial blackmail and the Europeans threatened to shut down the U.N. if the U.S. would not honor its debts.
In the face of growing pressure from governments and non-governmental organizations, as well as citizen leaders, the Administration shifted course. In a speech on March 4 in Helms' home state of North Carolina, with the Senator present in the hall, Albright announced that the U.S. would propose to Congress that the U.N. debts be paid off over five years. She also said that the administration would accept a lower rate of assessment, following an earlier proposal by Boutros-Ghali that the U.S. dues be cut from 25 to 20 percent. "The UN has accomplished much. Its goals are the rights ones. Its success matters to America," said Albright in a burst of conciliation. But she made it clear that the United States still intends to press ahead with downsizing "elephantine" U.N. and imposing further "fiscal discipline." As Albright said in a March 7 speech, "we expect our Congress to insist, at a minimum, on specific legislative conditions that would permit the actual payment of arrears to occur only as the UN reforms . . ." But the other member states have balked at this formula and object to the hard-line conditions the United States is trying to impose. Meanwhile, U.S. debts continue to mount and Congressional budget maneuvers offer little hope for a substantial easing of the crisis any time soon.
As the British U.N. ambassador, Sir John Weston, said last fall in New York, quoting Mark Twain: "any jackass can kick a barn down, but it takes a carpenter to build one." The UN needs more than one carpenter, if it is to survive and flourish into the next year, much less into the new millenium.
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