NYTimes.com Article: Panel Says Mixed Signals Have Eroded U.S. Status in

This article from NYTimes.com 
has been sent to you by threehegemons@aol.com.


This article buries the interesting news that the US wants to dismantle the 
non-aligned movement.  I suppose the thinking is that an alliance of 
'democracies' would isolate China and Cuba and demolish an independent forum 
for the global South.

Steven Sherman

'Of the scores of proposals for changing the United Nations in the last decade, 
this is the first to focus on the behind-the-scenes influence of bloc politics. 
Since the end of the Cold War, most nations in the organization are now 
democracies, said Lee Feinstein, one of the group's directors. But the United 
Nations still does much of its business through five unwieldy regional groups 
and the Non-Aligned Movement, which "continues to bind many democracies with 
highly repressive tyrannies and is an outdated obstacle" to more efficient 
action, the report said. 

The United States could restore its reputation in the organization and win 
backing for its goals by forging a new alliance based on "the effective 
promotion of democracy, human rights and counterterrorism." '



threehegemons@aol.com


Panel Says Mixed Signals Have Eroded U.S. Status in the U.N.

October 10, 2002
By JULIA PRESTON 




 

UNITED NATIONS, Oct. 9 - The United States has lost
influence within the United Nations because of years of
ambivalence towards the organization and should re-engage
it forcefully to build a coalition of democratic nations,
says a report to be issued on Thursday by a bipartisan task
force. 

As the Bush administration struggles to negotiate a
resolution on Iraq through the Security Council, the group
found that the United States has undermined its position in
the world body by neglecting or sending mixed messages to
the much larger constituency of countries active in the
General Assembly. 

"The United States is frequently outmaneuvered and
overmatched at the U.N.," says the report, sponsored by the
Council on Foreign Relations and Freedom House. The group
was led by Rep. David Dreier, a California Republican, and
Lee Hamilton, a former Democratic representative from
Indiana. 

While many senior administration officials have been wary
of the United Nations as a diplomatic sand trap that can
only slow Washington down, the report advocates much deeper
American involvement, including building up the United
States mission and sending out American diplomats to lobby
as if they were on Capitol Hill. 

"We should practice a little old-time politics," said Mr.
Hamilton, a former chairman of the House Foreign Affairs
Committee. "We should be working the back rooms very hard
to promote the democracy agenda." 

Of the scores of proposals for changing the United Nations
in the last decade, this is the first to focus on the
behind-the-scenes influence of bloc politics. Since the end
of the Cold War, most nations in the organization are now
democracies, said Lee Feinstein, one of the group's
directors. But the United Nations still does much of its
business through five unwieldy regional groups and the
Non-Aligned Movement, which "continues to bind many
democracies with highly repressive tyrannies and is an
outdated obstacle" to more efficient action, the report
said. 

The United States could restore its reputation in the
organization and win backing for its goals by forging a new
alliance based on "the effective promotion of democracy,
human rights and counterterrorism." 

Washington should press the General Assembly to adopt a
resolution ensuring the "right to multiparty democracy,"
the report says, and mobilize democracies to vote and work
together across the traditional group boundaries. 

The report calls on the United States to pay its dues on
time. During the 1990's, Washington's arrears became
crippling to the organization and fueled resentment.
Washington should also avoid long delays on appointments of
American ambassadors and beef up the political section of
the mission, the task force says. 

It recommends a more aggressive approach to the United
Nations Human Rights Commission, where the United States
lost its seat in 2001, then regained it a year later. The
loss of the seat was "a major setback to U.S. diplomacy,"
the report said. 

The group also said that the United States should support
the counterterrorism committee that is working to establish
global guidelines to fight terrorism. 

The group said that the Bush administration's reluctance to
sign on to international treaties, like an international
criminal court and global warming, have been a "sharp
disappointment" to many nations that rallied behind the
United States in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks. 




http://www.nytimes.com/2002/10/10/international/10REFO.html?ex=1035780398&ei=1&en=b68ea43e14b81610



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