United Nations

THE VIEW OF the United Nations (UN) by the U.S. government and its citizens reflects to some extent the ongoing national debate about whether the United States should act unilaterally, or seek consensus within the parameters of the United Nations. While the United States was one of the founding members of the United Nations and maintains a permanent seat on the Security Council, political leaders in the United States have increasingly challenged UN operations on a number of fronts, particularly regarding its peacekeeping missions. Questions regarding the UN have raged in the political arena of the United States periodically since 1952, when Republican Senator Joseph McCarthy held hearings regarding the loyalty of U.S. citizens employed by the UN. The investigation provoked such a furor that a federal grand jury was called in New York on the very subject. The collapse of the Soviet Union led officials in both President George Bush and Bill Clinton's administrations to hope that the United Nations would assume a major role in world peace that was envisioned upon its establishment. Many saw UN actions in the 1991 Persian Gulf War against Iraq as an example of the role the UN could and should assume regarding world peace.

However, the failure of the 1993 UN mission in Somalia and the failure to prevent or respond to ethnic cleansing in Bosnia and the genocide in Rwanda led to a political backlash in Congress. In 1994, Congress held back U.S. payments for UN missions in Somalia and Bosnia and passed legislation that limited U.S. contributions to one-fourth of the UN peacekeeping budget. The 1994 Republican Contract with America called for legislation that would prohibit U.S. forces from being placed under the command of non-U.S. commanders while participating in UN peacekeeping missions. While this proposal passed in the House, it [Page 809]never became law. Republican reluctance to support further UN peacekeeping missions forced the Clinton administration to scale down their support of such missions. In 2000, the Clinton administration failed in its attempts to pass a supplemental appropriations bill to support new UN peacekeeping missions in Kosovo and East Timor. Republican Senator John Warner of Virginia complained over the failure by European countries to fulfill their peacekeeping pledges and of the need for the UN to address existing peacekeeping missions. Other Republican congressional leaders, such as Congressman Benjamin Gilman, expressed concern over the poor organization and definition of U.S. missions. Congressional support for U.S. missions was further weakened in May 2000 when 500 UN peacekeepers were captured and held hostage by rebel forces within Sierra Leone.

U.S. lawmakers have traditionally had a more limited view of the role of UN peacekeeping: support for peacekeeping versus efforts at peacemaking. Congressional, and some military leaders such as the former commander of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) forces in Kosovo, General Wesley Clark, argue in favor of regional organizations and forces to address regional peacekeeping issues. The 2000 Republican ticket of George Bush and Dick Cheney criticized the Clinton administration for its willingness to commit U.S. forces to UN missions. The political debate caused by UN peacekeeping issues and Iraq was heightened when Libya assumed the chair of the UN Commission on Human Rights. Republican Representative Ron Paul of Texas called for the United States to leave the UN due to UN hostility to American interests, arguing that membership compromises U.S. sovereignty.

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