A Birthday Gift For the U.N.

Last week the United Nations turned 50. And while New York celebrated its accomplishments, Washington continued to undercut its support for the U.N. Congress refuses to repay its $1.4 billion debt to the U.N. It points to the organization's wasteful spending and sluggishness as reasons to remove its support. However, the U.S. should not remove its support at this critical time as the U.N. tries to reform itself.

Wasteful spending has been a problem. But the organization does not have enough oversight power to curb all the spending. Most of its major branches, such as the World Health Organization, are actually only bound to the U.N. by treaty and are not under U.N. authority. And while the U.N.'s spending is reputed to be extravagant, its 1995 budget of $10.5 billion is surely not too much to pay to help keep peace in the world. While the U.N. operated 25 peacekeeping operations in the last decade on that budget, it is still only three times the budget of New York City.

Congress also blames the U.N. for its sluggishness, both in reaching consensus and responding to crises. However, the enormity of the U.N.'s task is overwhelming: 185 sovereign nations do not always reach consensus. The important point is that the forum of the U.N. exists for nations to air their grievances. While nations zealously guard their own rights and retain authority over the U.N., the U.N. can hardly function with peak efficiency.

The U.N. cannot respond to crises quickly without greater power. To ask the U.N. to respond quickly while at the same time requiring it to be subordinate to individual countries is an impossible task. The U.N. has no rapid reaction force of its own--it must ask each country individually for use of its forces.

Speed is impossible under these circumstances. But the U.N. is trying to work around these problems. While the Dutch are the only peacekeeping country to advocate the U.N.'s own rapid reaction force, the Canadians and Danes are working on implementing their own plans for a faster response with their own countries' peacekeeping forces.

As part of the general reform movement, two new people are working to improve the U.N. The first is Karl Pasche, the Under Secretary-General for the new Internal Oversight Services who is working on the efficiency of the organization. The other is Joseph Connor, in charge of management and administration at the U.N. Connor and Pasche are streamlining the administration, but they are running short of money. If the U.S. paid its bill to the U.N., reform would proceed much more smoothly.

The U.S. owes $1.4 billion in back payments to the U.N., 40 percent of its total bill, and is the largest debtor to the U.N. refusing to pay. As a result, the U.N. may have to default on its $1.2 billion debt to 80 countries. Ironically, the hardest hit will probably be American contractors who have done most of the U.N.'s work and who will have to absorb the default.

Congress has a legitimate gripe in its concern that we pay a disproportionate share of the U.N.'s operating costs, and that those funds are not used properly. However, this is a debate which can take place only after the U.S. pays its bill. The U.S. has made a commitment that it must follow through on before questioning the validity of that commitment.

By refusing to pay its debt to the U.N., the U.S. is abandoning its pledge to international peace. The U.N. has in its 50 years fed and sheltered millions of refugees and eradicated smallpox from the world. Although the U.N. seems to be ineffective, it is as effective as possible while respecting individual sovereignty. Its largest problem has been the unrealistic goals set by the Security Council, of which the U.S. is a member. While the Security Council writes the mandates, in the future it must also provide the resources to enforce these mandates.

The U.N. has not been a perfect organization. However, it is the only worldwide forum of its kind. We should not abandon it because of petty administrative problems and thereby lose sight of its higher ideal of international peace. And until a Congress representing 50 states can run perfectly without wasteful spending and sluggishness, it can hardly expect perfection from a U.N. representing 185 sovereign nations.