World Watch: Bush backs expanded U.N. Security Council
The Bush administration has long called for United Nations reform but sidestepped the specifics. Now, though, the administration has jumped into the debate, backing several changes recommended by a bipartisan task force commissioned by Congress as well as an expansion of the 15-member Security Council.
The administration envisions adding "two or so" to the current roster of five permanent members (the United States, Russia, China, Britain, and France). This would be the first change in permanent membership in several decades. The Bush administration supports a permanent place for Japan for one of the two spots in recognition of its major financial support for U.N. activities and is thought to favor India over the other avowed candidates, Germany and Brazil. The administration said the addition of new members, including another "two or three" nonpermanent members, should be based on criteria such as population size, military capacity, and expected contributions to the United Nations.
But the proposal may have trouble getting off the ground. The administration asserts that any restructuring of the Security Council should be preceded by what are likely to be controversial changes at the world body—reforming the administration and budget, overhauling the human-rights machinery, establishing a peace-building commission, and creating a "democracy fund." And the proposal may suffer from Washington's strained relationship with the U.N.—and member governments—since the run-up to the Iraq war.
The proposal comes during a year of tumult and uncertainty for the U.N. Several independent commissions are investigating the oil-for-food scandal, and general questions persist about the U.N.'s role in combating terrorism. In March, as part of a broad set of goals for the U.N., Secretary General Kofi Annan proposed a set of reforms that would expand the size of the Security Council, abolish the human-rights commission in favor of a new council, and increase funds for global development. He set a deadline to enact those reforms by September, when the United Nations celebrates its 60th anniversary.
The bipartisan task force report headed by former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, a Republican, and former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell, a Democrat, recommended similar reforms, as well as stronger oversight power for the secretary general over daily operations, an independent audit board, and quick action to stop the genocide in the Darfur region of the Sudan. Some members of the task force quickly called on Congress to pass pending legislation that would withhold U.S. dues to the United Nations if reforms are not enacted. The bill won House approval on Friday, 221 to 184, and now moves to the Senate, where its prospects are unclear. The administration and many outside experts have opposed the legislation, introduced by Rep. Henry Hyde, an Illinois Republican and chairman of the House International Relations Committee.
"It is extremely dangerous to have the Congress intervening, and effectively, if the congressional legislation were to pass, it would make it impossible starting this fall to launch any kind of peacekeeping missions such as that needed in Sudan," said Timothy E. Wirth, a former Colorado senator and president of the United Nations Foundation.
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