United Nations

Return to Common Sense

December 30, 2016

Section: Foreign – United Nations

“The United Nations has underperformed for too long, so it is now time for the U.S. to begin to disengage and stop funding this bloated anti-American bureaucracy and explore other options.”

“There is no such thing as the United Nations. There is only the international community, which can only be led by the only remaining superpower, which is the United States.” John Bolton

Philosophy (Background, Issues, Objectives):

The United Nations was founded in 1945, replacing The League of Nations, founded in 1919.

· There exist 192 member states, all of which have an equal vote in the General Assembly.

· UN was founded to maintain international peace and security, promote self-determination and basic rights, and protect fundamental freedom.

· UN core: General Assembly, Security Council, ECOSOC, Secretariat, and International Court of Justice.

· UN semi-independent programs and funds, institutes, and other entities.

· Independent organizations include World Bank, International Monetary Fund, World Trade Organization, World Health Organization, and Food and Agriculture Organization.

· On largely technical matters such as civil aviation, health standards, postal, meteorological and telecommunication issues, the UN’s specialized agencies and other related organizations perform useful services to the international community.

· The UN is financed in two ways: assessed and voluntary contributions from member states.

o Largest contributors: US (22%), Japan (20%), Germany (10%), France (6%), UK (6%), and Italy (5%).

o Legislation restricts U.S. contribution to U.N. peacekeeping to no more than 25%.

o In FY2010 U.S. spent a total of more than $7.69 billion on U.N activities ranging from food programs to peacekeeping.

United Nations execution has been huge, costly, cumbersome, and lacks accountability.

· United Nations has added a large number of third world countries, who contribute little to the budget.

o Most of the smaller countries in the General Assembly are there not to save money or promote governance, but to attract foreign aid and attention.

· Numerous mandates and responsibilities have been added that far outstrip resources and capabilities.

o Resolutions have many times been blatantly anti-American or anti-Semitic.

o Radical feminists have injected socialistic gender equity into UN organization missions.

· Membership on Councils has been rotational without regard to member qualifications or commitment.

o Less than half of the Human Rights Council is from “free” countries.

o Human Rights Council has been dominated by the Islamic members and has targeted Israel for a majority of its investigations,

· UN peacekeeping mission has been notoriously ineffective.

o Since UN peacekeeping in Darfur in 2003, 400,000 have been killed and 2.5 million displaced.

· Recent scandals have revealed a distinct lack of accountability, and demand fundamental reforms.

Support for the United Nations by Americans has eroded through the years.

· Annual Gallup poll revealed only 26% of respondents said the U.N. was doing a good job “in trying to solve the problems it has had to face.”

o The score marks a new low point in a steady decline since 2002, when 58% of respondents thought the U.N. was doing a good job.

o This year’s is also the lowest score registered by Gallup in more than half a century of tracking the issue.

· Gallup attributed the downward trend since 2002 to the U.N.’s stand on the 2003 war in Iraq, corruption and scandals including the oil-for-food affair and sexual abuse by peacekeepers in Africa.

Even though communism has been discredited, the 1963 communist goals live on in the U.N.

· One World Government with its own independent armed forces.

· International Court of Justice to rule on international laws superceding country laws.

· Free trade among all nations, regardless to their political or economic orientation.

· One World Bank and an International Monetary Fund.

· Ability to tax all member states according to UN needs.

· Infiltrate and control all unions.

· Gain control of the media to support partisan positions.

· Infiltrate the schools to rewrite history and teach propaganda.

· Discredit the family and promote homosexuality, degeneracy, and promiscuity.

· Break down cultural standards of morality and religion to replace with moral equivalency.

· Emphasize need to raise children away from the “negative influence of parents.”

Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) is being reinvigorated as a new superpower in a new cold war.

· Venezuela is trying to resurrect non-aligned countries into a potent UN counterweight.

· Cuba, Iran, and Bolivia have all signed on to this movement.

· UN General Assembly is the forum where the NAM wants the global stage.

Commission on Global Governance published “Our Global Neighborhood” in 1995:

Eliminating the veto and permanent member status in the Security Council;
Authorizing global taxation on currency exchange and use of the "global commons;"
Creating an International Criminal Court;
Creating a standing army under the command of the secretary-general;
Creating a new Economic Security Council;
Creating a new People's Assembly;
Regulating multinational corporations;
Regulating the global commons;
Controlling the manufacture, sale, and distribution of all firearms.
President Clinton in 1999 worked to figure out how to implement these proposals.

UN proposed an Alliance of Civilizations in 2005 to overcome discord between nations.

· Initial report focused obsessively on failings of western countries, ignoring Muslim countries.

· Report included implicit approval of constraints on freedom of expression and the press.

· Economic proposals for Middle East are unlikely to work since it does not address problems.

The Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), founded in 1888 originally sought to promote peace by encouraging regular contacts between parliamentarians from established democracies.

The IPU supported free trade and arbitration, on the basis of respect for national sovereignty, between nation states.
The IPU of today bears no resemblance to the original intent having been captured and perverted by autocracies and anti-sovereignty activists.
The IPU has no standards for membership and, as such, provides token legitimacy to many of the world's worst dictatorships.
They are now so dominated by these enemies within that they cannot be reformed, because the autocracies can simply vote down any measure that threatens their stranglehold.

Regional governmental organizations are forming with common self interests and quasi-governmental authority, and may be the next step towards “One World Order.”

The European Union is the oldest and is struggling to reconcile the non-elected government with the varied needs and financial interests of its members.
The “North American Union” is rumored based on the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP) uniting Canada, the U.S. and Mexico.
In Asia, APEC now straddles the region, drawing on pledges from individual member nations to surrender economic sovereignty to APEC institutions.
In South East Asia, ASEAN gains increasing leverage over previously sacred national spheres.
In Africa, the budding OAU exercises military and economic authority.
In the Caribbean, CARICOM has taken over money, government, and education.
In the Pacific, PACICOM unites the island nations, previously colonized by European powers that no longer exist.
In the former Soviet Union, the CIS has regained control over key policy areas, due to recent demonstrations of Russian might in surrounding Slavic countries.
The Arabic-speaking nations long ago homogenized decision-making processes within an arrangement known as the Arab League.
In Latin America, an EU-prototype called the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) has emerged with its own regional parliament.

Principles:

Use globalization as a tool to further America’s objectives, not to subject the country to its dictates.

· Protect America’s ability to act as necessary to protect its own interests.

Recommendations:

Short term, fundamentally reform the UN or withdraw funding and support the continued operations of the parts that are not working as designed.

· Implement population weighted funding for the United Nations.

o Encourage U.N. to move to Geneva, Switzerland.

o Require UN independent agencies to publish line by line detailed budgets for oversight.

o Enhance U.N. ethics standards and whistleblower protections.

o Restore the U.S. policy of zero growth for the U.N. regular budget.

o Since the U.S. has 6% of world population, U.S. should fund 6% of budget.

§ Tie U.S. contributions to specific U.N. changes.

§ Reduce U.S. funding to the U.N. system by 10% per year until justified.

· Implement GDP weighted voting in the General Assembly.

o Require UN independent agencies to publish line by line detailed budgets for oversight.

o Oppose the biased, anti-American Alliance of Civilizations mandate, funding, and support.

· Realign UN Security Council to be top 7 economies (GDP).

o Today’s 1 to 9: U.S., Japan, Germany, France, UK, Italy, Canada, Spain, Brazil.

o Enforce the U.S. peacekeeping assessment 25% cap.

o Require China and Russia to “pay to play.”

o Ensure continued mission to guard international peace and security.

o Enforce standards of conduct for civilian and military personnel participating in U.N. peace operations.

o Require Human Rights Council members to champion the causes of political and economic freedom.

o Require the Human Rights Council to provide objective, fair and balanced assessments of Human Rights conditions around the world.

§ Withhold a portion of U.S. funding to the U.N. regular budget until the General Assembly ends the practice of funding the council and other U.N. human rights activities through the U.N. regular budget.

o Withhold annual funds that are earmarked for obsolete or unsupported functions.

· Withdraw from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

· Withdraw from the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

· Eliminate funding for inefficient and ineffective programs.

o Eliminate the Export-Import Bank.

o Eliminate Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC).

o Eliminate funding for UN Population Fund (UNFPA).

o Sunset the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as having outlived its usefulness.

· Continue to veto attempts to subvert member rights to UN authority.

o Participate in Millennium Declaration project goals only when it serves our own national interests.

§ Reject the U.N. Law of the Sea (LOST) Treaty.

§ Reject UN tax and fees initiatives.

§ Reject international gun control initiatives.

§ Reject “Environmental Sustainability” initiatives.

o Reject the “Responsibility to Protect” doctrine that obligates military intervention.

o Seek to coordinate voting by politically free governments within the U.N.

o Seek support for an economic freedom coalition within the U.N.

Long term, withdraw from the United Nations ($362M).

· Replace UN with League of Democracies to promote global freedom.

o Restrict membership to countries with democratic values and rules of law.

o Provide Free Trade Agreement between all members as an economic advantage of membership.

o Assemble coalitions of forces to enforce and keep the peace among nations.

References:

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