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In his speech before the United Nations General Assembly last week, President Biden Proposed building a “more effective and more inclusive United Nations” by “bringing in new voices and new perspectives”.
What they should have said instead is that The United Nations has lost its wayAnd if it is to remain relevant, it will need to be seriously reconsidered.
Certainly, the reconstruction of the global order after World War II inspired the creation of the United Nations system, and its specialized agencies, such as the Food and Agriculture Organization, have performed important work for decades.
A flag of the United Nations is raised at its campus in Bonn, Germany on September 28, 2024. (Ina Fassbender/AFP via Getty Images)
However, the UN today suffers from a fundamental flaw: it gives too much power to revisionists. dictatorship like china And Russia which wants to destroy the US-led global order. Beijing, Moscow and other revisionist authoritarians use their influence within the UN to turn the organization against its founding mission.
UN abandoned its role as Middle East peacemaker by supporting terrorists
The list of abuses is long.
Russia chaired a UN Security Council meeting on the situation in Ukraine as it launched its invasion of that country. China continues to prevent the World Health Organization from investigating the origin of COVID-19, making it more likely to spread in the future.
Russia and China also use their seats on the UN Security Council to weaken sanctions efforts against illegal nuclear programs in North Korea and Iran. United Nations Human Rights Council This includes repressive regimes like China – ensuring that these countries escape scrutiny for their brutal human rights records.
and United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) staff participated in the 7 October attacks against Israel.
These are just the most prominent examples.
End US funding for the UN agency that gives immunity to its murderous Hamas members
Nevertheless, last week’s proceedings demonstrate that many people still believe that the United Nations is the best possible forum for bringing countries together to address shared global challenges.
This is wishful thinking.
Biden is right when he says we are at an inflection point in history, but we will be able to meet this challenge only if the United States and its allies can revitalize and adapt multilateral institutions to reflect new realities.
Instead of Biden’s words Regarding global cooperation, the next US administration must recognize that America’s adversaries have turned the UN into yet another arena of competition between independent nations and an axis of revisionist autocracy.
Hamas leader killed in Lebanon was UN employee, agency confirms
He should use speeches in the General Assembly to highlight the bad behavior of America’s adversaries like China, Russia, Iran. north korea and Venezuela, and encourage close allies to join in the condemnation. They must remain steadfast in resisting this axis’ threats to their neighbors, their unfair trade practices, and their despicable human rights abuses.
They must continue to defend U.S. allies like Israel from unfair attacks and acknowledge that the United Nations is becoming even more obsessively anti-Semitic.
In both 2022 and 2023, the number of UN General Assembly resolutions condemning Israel exceeded the total number of those condemning all other countries combined. Yet, the organization refrained from condemning Hamas following the despicable 7 October attack – even after nine UNRWA staff were fired for possible involvement in an act of war.
To counter the capture of the UN by capricious autocratic regimes, Washington and its allies should use their diplomatic influence to position US and allied officials in leadership institutions and key UN bodies, including human rights council,
Why Biden’s speech at UNGA should sound alarm bells around the world
The United States provides one-third of the UN’s funding, giving it enormous potential influence if it is willing to use it. But the US must move from mandatory assessments to voluntary contributions to prioritize programs that advance US interests and harm others.
Furthermore, Washington should advance multilateralism in the UN system by choosing to favor institutions that include America’s democratic allies and exclude authoritarian regimes such as Russia and China. These groups, like G-7 and NATOThese are often the only places where real international cooperation takes place today.
Ultimately, there is no need to stick to a pre-existing arrangement. After World War II, there was an explosion of creativity as Washington and his allies invented entirely new bodies. The world now needs a new wave of such innovative thinking to design the multilateral framework needed to meet contemporary challenges.
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Priority should be given to frameworks that bring together US allies in North America, Europe, and the Indo-Pacific. nato, quad, acus, ip4 (Australia, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea), and the US-Japanese-Korean trilateral agreement are promising steps in this direction.
Last week’s UN proceedings show that hope for multilateral cooperation remains alive. But to translate that sentiment into effective governance, Washington will need to reimagine the United Nations and other global institutions to return them to their founding mission of promoting peace, prosperity, and freedom.
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Matthew Kroenig is vice chair of the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center, professor at Georgetown, and a former Pentagon strategist. Dan Negria is a former State Department Special Representative for Commercial and Business Affairs and a Distinguished Fellow of the Atlantic Council. Authors write only in their individual capacity and not on behalf of any person or organization.
