The United States is a charter member of the United Nations and one of five permanent members of the UN Security Council.
The United States boasts the headquarters of the United Nations, which includes the usual meeting place of the General Assembly in New York City, on the north east coast of the country. The United States is the largest provider of financial contributions to the United Nations, providing 27.89 percent of the UN assessed peacekeeping budget of $6.38 billion for fiscal year 2020 (China and Japan contributed 15.2 percent and 8.5 percent, respectively). The assessed peacekeeping budget is separate from voluntary contributions and the assessed regular budget. The assessed regular budget of the UN for fiscal year 2022 in $3.12 billion. From July 2016 to June 2017, 28.6 percent of the budget used for peacekeeping operations was provided by the United States. The United States had a pivotal role in establishing the UN.
Their main inspiration was the League of Nations; however, their goals were to rectify the League's imperfectionsJohn Allphin Moore and Jr. Jerry Pubantz. The New United Nations: International Organization in the Twenty-First Century (Upper Saddle River, New Jersey : Pearson Prentice Hall, 2006), 43-44 in order to create an organization that would be “the primary vehicle for maintaining peace and stability.”John Allphin Moore and Jr. Jerry Pubantz. The New United Nations: International Organization in the Twenty-First Century (Upper Saddle River, New Jersey : Pearson Prentice Hall, 2006), 44 Roosevelt's main role was to convince the different allies, especially Winston Churchill of the United Kingdom and Joseph Stalin of the Soviet Union, to join the new organization. The negotiations mainly took place during the Dumbarton Oaks Conference and the Yalta Conference, where the three world leaders tried to reach a consensus concerning the United Nations' structure, purposes and principles.John Allphin Moore and Jr. Jerry Pubantz. The New United Nations: International Organization in the Twenty-Fifth Century (Upper Saddle River, New Jersey : Pearson Prentice Hall, 2006), 43 “Roosevelt saw the United Nations as the crowning achievement of his political career.”John Allphin Moore and Jr. Jerry Pubantz. The New United Nations: International Organization in the Twenty-First Century (Upper Saddle River, New Jersey : Pearson Prentice Hall, 2006), 46 Roosevelt's envoy Wendell Willkie played a key role in promoting the idea of the United States joining the new organization, publishing One World in April 1943. In September 1943, 81 percent of Americans - up from 63 percent in February - supported joining a "union of nations" after the war.
In 1945, representatives from 50 countries met in San Francisco for the United Nations Conference on International Organization. They deliberated on proposals that had been drafted by representatives of the Republic of China, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom and the United States at the Dumbarton Oaks Conference between August and October 1944. Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin reviewed the Dumbarton Oaks proposal during the Yalta Conference in February 1945. The purpose of the conference was to discuss post-war settlementsJohn Allphin Moore and Jr. Jerry Pubantz. The New United Nations: International Organization in the Twenty-First Century (Upper Saddle River, New Jersey : Pearson Prentice Hall, 2006), 51 and to reach a final agreement concerning “the UN’s structure and membership and set the date of the San Francisco organizing conference.”John Allphin Moore and Jr. Jerry Pubantz. The New United Nations: International Organization in the Twenty-First Century (Upper Saddle River, New Jersey : Pearson Prentice Hall, 2006), 52 The world leaders eventually agreed on Roosevelt's proposal to give certain members a veto powerFrancis O. Wilcox. “II. The Yalta Voting Formula” The American Political Science Review 39, no. 5 (Oct, 1945), 953 so “that the Organization could take no important action without their joint consent.”Francis O. Wilcox. “II. The Yalta Voting Formula” The American Political Science Review 39, no. 5 (Oct, 1945), 944 Though the veto power question created a lot of disagreement among the different signatories,Francis O. Wilcox. “II. The Yalta Voting Formula” The American Political Science Review 39, no. 5 (Oct, 1945), 943 its inclusion in the charter was never a matter of negotiation for Roosevelt and his allies.Francis O. Wilcox. “II. The Yalta Voting Formula” The American Political Science Review 39, no. 5 (Oct, 1945), 954 Finally, during the Yalta conference, Stalin agreed to make the USSR a member of the United Nations.
An important American contribution, prior to the formation of the United Nations, was made at the Bretton Woods Conference. This conference took place in 1944 and its goal was “to create a new international monetary and trade regime that was stable and predictable.”John Allphin Moore and Jr. Jerry Pubantz. The New United Nations: International Organization in the Twenty-First Century (Upper Saddle River, New Jersey : Pearson Prentice Hall, 2006), 53 Over subsequent decades, this new system opened world markets and promoted a liberal economy. It was implemented through different institutions, such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, which went on to work with the United Nations but remained independent from it.Chronis Polychroniou. “Rise and Fall of US Imperialism” Economic and Political Weekly 30, no. 30 (July 29, 1995), 58
On July 28, 1945, the United States Senate (as part of the 79th United States Congress) ratified the United Nations Charter by a vote of .Carroll, Mitchell B. “Further Action on United Nations Charter.” American Bar Association Journal, vol. 31, no. 9, 1945, pp. 457–58. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/25715332. Accessed 4 July 2024.Gillette, Guy M., et al. “UNITED NATIONS CHARTER REVIEW.” Proceedings of the American Society of International Law at Its Annual Meeting (1921-1969), vol. 48, 1954, pp. 191–211. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/25657319. Accessed 4 July 2024. (By comparison, the Senate had voted in favor of joining the League of Nations, short of the required two-thirds majority for ratification.) The United Nations officially came into existence on October 24, 1945, when all of the Permanent Five (the Republic of China, France, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States) as well as a majority of other signatories had ratified the Charter.
The United Nations was the first international governmental organization to receive significant support from the United States. Its forerunner, the League of Nations, had been championed by Woodrow Wilson after World War I to prevent future conflicts. While it was supported by most Europe, it was never ratified by the United States Congress due to the inability to reach a compromise regarding the Lodge Reservations or the Hitchcock Reservations.
Shortly after the establishment of the United Nations, the United States came into conflict with another member of the Security Council. Since the Soviet Union was a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, it had the power to veto any binding UN resolution. In fact, Soviet foreign minister and UN ambassador Vyacheslav Molotov used veto power twice as often as any other permanent member, earning him the title "Mr. Veto".
Relations between the United States and the Soviet Union (later Russia) within the UN have evolved in step with the larger geopolitical situation between the two powers. While the Soviet Union was boycotting the Security Council and China's seat was represented by U.S.-friendly Taiwan (instead of the Communism China which would replace the ROC in the UN in 1971), the U.S. and UN jointly condemned the invasion of South Korea by North Korean troops, leading to the UN sanctioned Korean War. Later, the U.S. persuaded all permanent members of the Security Council to authorize force against Iraq after it invaded Kuwait in 1991. This was a major step toward U.S. and Russian reconciliation after the end of the Cold War.
After prolonged negotiations, the U.S. and the UN negotiated an agreement whereby the United States would pay a large part of the money it owes, and in exchange the UN would reduce the assessment rate ceiling from 25% to 22%. The reduction in the assessment rate ceiling was among the reforms contained in the United Nations Reform Act of 1999 or Helms-Biden Act, which links payment of $926 million in U.S. arrears to the UN and other international organizations to a series of reform benchmarks. Bond, 2003)
Of the U.S. arrears to the UN totaling over $1.3 billion, $612 million was payable under Helms-Biden. The remaining $700 million resulted from various legislative and policy withholdings.
Under Helms-Biden, the U.S. paid $100 million in arrears to the UN in December 1999; release of the next $582 million awaited a legislative revision to Helms-Biden, necessary because the benchmark requiring a 25 percent peacekeeping assessment rate ceiling was not quite achieved. The U.S. also sought elimination of the legislated 25 percent cap on U.S. peacekeeping payments in effect since 1995, which continued to generate additional UN arrears. Of the final $244 million under Helms-Biden, $30 million was payable to the UN and $214 million to other international organizations. Bond, 2003)
In February 2001, Congress authorized the second Helms-Biden payment, but because of an eight-month delay in appropriations, the U.N. chose not to re-elect the United States to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights. Following the September 11 attacks, on 6 October 2001, Bush signed the second Helms-Biden appropriation into law and in March 2002, the U.S. was voted back onto the commission. In October 2002, Congress lifted the 25% cap on peacekeeping assessments and in November 2002, the U.S. made the final Helms-Biden appropriation.Britta A. Schnoor, "International law, the power of the purse, and speaking with one voice: the legal cacophony created by withholding U.S. dues from the United Nations" Iowa Law Review, March, 2007, Vol.92(3), p.1133-1182
+ U.S. debt to the United Nations, from 1995 to 2005 | |||
31 December 1995 | $414 million (73%) | $816 million (47%) | $1.231 billion (56%) |
31 December 1996 | $376 million (74%) | $926 million (57%) | $1.303 billion (61%) |
31 December 1997 | $373 million (79%) | $940 million (60%) | $1.313 billion (64%) |
31 December 1998 | $316 million (76%) | $976 million (61%) | $1.294 billion (64%) |
31 December 1999 | $167 million (68%) | $995 million (67%) | $1.170 billion (67%) |
31 December 2000 | $165 million (74%) | $1.144 billion (56%) | $1.321 billion (58%) |
31 December 2001 | $165 million (69%) | $691 million (38%) | $871 million (41%) |
31 December 2002 | $190 million (62%) | $536 million (40%) | $738 million (44%) |
31 December 2003 | $268 million (61%) | $482 million (45%) | $762 million (48%) |
31 December 2004 | $241 million (68%) | $722 million (28%) | $975 million (33%) |
30 September 2005 | $607 million (82%) | $607 million (28%) | $1.246 billion (41%) |
In November 2002, the United Nations Security Council adopted Resolution 1441, giving Iraq an ultimatum to co-operate in disarmament within an unstated timeframe of a few months. However, in March 2003, the U.S., supported by fifty countries (including the United Kingdom, Spain, Australia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, the Netherlands and Poland) which the Bush administration referred to as the "coalition of the willing" launched military operations against Iraq. On April 9, Saddam Hussein's regime was overthrown and Iraq was placed under occupation, marked by the fall of Baghdad. The U.S. argued that this action was authorized by Resolution 1441, since Iraq had failed to comply by co-operating fully in the identification and destruction of its weapons programs, and since Resolution 1441 promised 'serious consequences' for lack of full compliance and achievement of its objective.
Other countries, led by France, Germany and Russia, maintained that Resolution 1441 did not authorize the use of force without passage of a further Resolution. French President Jacques Chirac stated "My position is that, whatever the circumstances, France will vote 'no' because this evening it considers that it is not necessary to make war to achieve the stated goal of the disarmament of Iraq".
Rightly or wrongly the "this evening" qualification was ignored, perhaps because the implications of its English translation are ambiguous. The statement was widely interpreted in the English-speaking world as meaning that France would exercise its right as a Permanent Member of the Security Council to veto any resolution at any time ("whatever the circumstances") to use force against Iraq.
Following the overthrow of the former Iraqi government, the Iraq Survey Group led an exhaustive search of Iraq for WMD. Ultimately, while over 500 "degraded" chemical warheads were found, no deployable WMD of any kind were found and all WMD production facilities had been found to be inactive since 1991.
On June 17, 2005, the United States House of Representatives passed the United Nations Reform Act of 2005 to slash funds to the UN in half by 2008 if it does not meet certain criteria. This reflects years of complaints about anti-American and anti-Israeli bias in the UN, particularly the exclusion of Israel from many decision-making organizations. The U.S. is estimated to contribute about 27.89% of the UN's yearly budget due to the UN's ability-to-pay scale, making this bill potentially devastating to the United Nations. The Bush administration and several former U.S. ambassadors to the UN have warned that this may only strengthen anti-American sentiment around the world and serve to hurt current UN reform movements. The bill passed the House in June 2005, and a parallel bill was introduced in the Senate by Gordon H. Smith on July 13, 2005. However, a number of leading Senate Republicans objected to the requirement that the U.S. contributions be halved if the UN failed to meet all of the criteria. The UN Management, Personnel, and Policy Reform Act of 2005 (S. 1394), introduced on July 12, 2005 into the Senate by Sen. Norm Coleman R-MN and Sen. Richard Lugar R-IN, called for similar reforms but left the withholding of dues to the discretion of the President. Neither piece of legislation made it into law.
Despite criticisms, the majority of Americans (88%) support active engagement in the United Nations, as evidenced by a non-partisan poll conducted after the 2016 election.[6], Better World Campaign.[7] , Public Opinion Strategies and Hart Research Associates UNF National Phone Survey.
While most agree that the UN could be improved, Noam Chomsky, a leading critic of U.S. foreign policy, proposes that measures such as the US relinquishing its veto power in the Security Council and submitting to the rulings of the International Court of Justice could significantly improve the UN's ability to foster the growth of democracy and promote global peace and the protection of human rights. However, some American organizations and individuals, such as the John Birch Society and Wayne LaPierre of the National Rifle Association of America, oppose the United Nations on the basis of its perceived failures or alleged interference with domestic affairs. LaPierre wrote the book "The Global War on Your Guns," in which he alerts the U.S. to the supposed threat of the Arms Trade Treaty.
When the United States Government released its National Security Strategy.pdf for 2010 in May 2010, this quote was found embedded on the 46th page in regards to the United Nations:
Enhance Cooperation with and Strengthen the United Nations: We are enhancing our coordination with the U.N. and its agencies. We need a U.N. capable of fulfilling its founding purpose—maintaining international peace and security, promoting global cooperation, and advancing human rights. To this end, we are paying our bills. We are intensifying efforts with partners on and outside the U.N. Security Council to ensure timely, robust, and credible Council action to address threats to peace and security. We favor Security Council reform that enhances the U.N.’s overall performance, credibility, and legitimacy. Across the broader U.N. system we support reforms that promote effective and efficient leadership and management of the U.N.’s international civil service, and we are working with U.N. personnel and member states to strengthen the U.N.’s leadership and operational capacity in peacekeeping, humanitarian relief, post-disaster recovery, development assistance, and the promotion of human's rights. And we are supporting new U.N. frameworks and capacities for combating transnational threats like proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, infectious disease, drug-trafficking, and counter terrorism.
On January 3, 2017, a bill entitled the American Sovereignty Restoration Act of 2017 (ASRA) was introduced in the House to withdraw the US from the U.N.[9] January 3, 2017 This bill was nearly identical to the first such bill, the ASRA of 1997, introduced by Ron Paul.[10] American Sovereignty Restoration Act of 1997 Since then, a version of the ASRA has been introduced in every congressional session.[11] American Sovereignty Restoration Act of 1999[12] American Sovereignty Restoration Act of 2001[13] American Sovereignty Restoration Act of 2003[14] American Sovereignty Restoration Act of 2005[15] American Sovereignty Restoration Act of 2007[16] American Sovereignty Restoration Act of 2009[17] American Sovereignty Restoration Act of 2011[18] American Sovereignty Restoration Act of 2013[19] American Sovereignty Restoration Act of 2015 To date, each such attempt has been met with minimal congressional support and died in committee.
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