World Watch: Bush administration vows U.N. reform
In just under two weeks, some 170 heads of state or government, including President Bush, will descend on Manhattan. The September 14–16 summit will lead to massive traffic jams, security headaches, and, perhaps, a critical shift in the way the United Nations does business. Or perhaps not.
Negotiators at the U.N. this week were poring over competing drafts of a document instigated by U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan. It is aimed at generating badly needed management reforms, more funding for development aid, new institutions concerned with human rights and with helping post-conflict countries, rules for dealing with genocide, and antiterrorism cooperation. The talks were said to have gotten off to a difficult start, though U.S. officials yesterday pronounced themselves "optimistic" on forging a consensus in time for the meeting this month.
Some diplomats familiar with the talks lay the blame squarely on the Bush administration, especially on the new U.S. permanent representative to the U.N., former State Department official John Bolton.
Last week, Bolton sent a letter to all U.N. member governments suggesting a slew of changes to the draft document (750 in all, according to diplomats) and saying that "time is short" to fix all the problems. The U.S. approach seems to be to cut the size of the document down to a shorter statement of principles and to avoid committing Washington to any specific development-aid targets.
Though the United States had submitted other suggested changes through the summer, diplomats in New York, speaking on condition of anonymity, suggested that Bolton–a onetime fierce critic of the U.N.–had overwhelmed the process late in the game with the proposed changes, putting the entire project at risk. A successful outcome is widely considered a key to Annan's legacy over two terms as secretary general–and to jump-starting change in a world body that often changes only when its members push it.
The U.S. assistant secretary of state for international organization affairs, Kristen Silverberg, declined to discuss many specifics of Washington's proposed changes at a briefing yesterday, but she said they should not have surprised anyone.
"They represent long-standing U.S. government policy views," she said. She called Bolton "a tireless and principled advocate for the U.S. position."
The question is, can a skeptical world be won over to his point of view?
World Watch covers foreign policy, probing issues and events from around the globe for usnews.com readers.
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