Reforming the United Nations
Congress asks the Institute to develop a plan of action.
April/May 2005
Newt Gingrich and George Mitchell.
In December 2004, the Institute was directed by Congress to create a task force on the United Nations. Its purpose: to examine the extent to which the UN is fulfilling the mission stated in its charter and to recommend an actionable plan for the United States to help the UN reform.
Although this will not be an official U.S. government report, the Institute is obliged to report back to Congress by June 6, 2005. "The task force is motivated by a conviction that a United Nations that functions effectively within the limits of the charter is in the best interests of the United States," says George Ward, director of the Professional Training Program, who is coordinating the project. [N.B.: The Task Force published its report as this issue of Peace Watch went to press; the next issue will feature a lengthy article on its findings and recommendations.
The task force itself is composed of a diverse and bipartisan group of distinguished Americans from a variety of professions and backgrounds. Heading it are Newt Gingrich, former Speaker of the House of Representatives, and George Mitchell, the former majority leader of the Senate. Other members include: Wesley K. Clark, Edwin Feulner, Roderick Hills, Donald McHenry, Danielle Pletka, Thomas Pickering, Anne-Marie Slaughter, A. Michael Spence, Malcolm Wallop, and R. James Woolsey. Senior advisors to the task force are Charles Boyd and J. Robinson West (chair of the Institute's board of directors).
Aiding the task force are experts drawn from six of the leading foreign policy think tanks, including the American Enterprise Institute, the Brookings Institute, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Heritage Foundation, and the Hoover Institution.
"What distinguishes this task force from others examining reform at the UN is that this one is distinctively American in outlook--it's looking at the UN in terms of American interests. It's also emphatically bipartisan, and it aims to make recommendations that Congress and the Executive branch can put into effect to help the UN in its reform efforts," says Ward. "The study was prompted by congressional concerns over the UN's performance in Darfur, the oil-for-food scandal, and revelations of continuing sexual abuse by UN peacekeepers. Congressman Frank Wolf, who, as the chairman of the Commerce/Justice/State Appropriations Sub-committee, authored the legislation establishing this task force, has been particularly concerned about the situation in Darfur."
The task force has organized its work around five thematic areas, each of which is led by task force members and comprises several experts. Each of these teams has conducted research and undertaken fact-finding missions to the UN and to its missions abroad.
The five thematic areas are as follows:
- Preventing and ending conflicts and building stable states;
- Preventing and responding to genocide and gross human rights violations;
- Preventing catastrophic terrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction;
- Ensuring the effectiveness, integrity, transparency, and accountability of the UN system; and
- Fostering economic development and reducing poverty.
At a press briefing in early February, Gingrich emphasized the U.S. focus of the task force. "On the 60th anniversary of the creation of the United Nations, it is useful for the United States to assess what its interests are in international organizations in general, and then the UN in particular, and it is helpful for the United States to be able to approach the issue of rethinking and reforming the UN from the standpoint of our national interest and our national values." Mitchell seconded that sentiment, saying that "We are viewing this [task force] from the prism of American interests and seeing how we can make recommendations that will advance our interests by making the UN more effective. . . . We are determined to look at the UN without fear or favor, without any boundaries or restraints on either the subject matter that we look at or the approach that we take."
Both task force leaders emphasized their desire to make actionable recommendations. "The libraries of the world are filled with studies, several of which I contributed to, which have gone largely unread and almost entirely unimplemented," said Mitchell. "And it is our view that the more specific our recommendations the more likely they are to be both read and implemented."
They also cautioned against turning the UN into a scapegoat for all the failures of the international community. "Rwanda was in part an American problem and in part a French problem. And it's an exaggeration to say the UN failed when, in fact, two members of the Security Council, for very different reasons, were each behaving in ways that made it impossible for the UN mission to succeed," said Gingrich. Mitchell agreed: "The UN is, of course, an entity in and of itself. But it is comprised of member states, and its funding and resources come from those member states. And we all have to be careful, as Newt has suggested, not to suggest that there is a simple solution that casts the blame entirely on the entity and exempts the member states who comprise the entity."
