Mend it, Don't End It: The Sad Story of the United Nations

Over a decade ago it was generally expected that the end of the Cold War would usher in the revival of the United Nations. At that time the U.N. negotiated a string of settlements that resolved conflicts between Iran and Iraq, incited the removal of Soviet forces from Afghanistan, and ended El Salvador’s chronic civil war. This short window of success inspired the view that it was the Cold War that had prohibited the United Nations from being a valuable world mediator. Boutros Boutros-Ghali, the new Secretary-General, exhorted member-nations to seize this “extraordinary opportunity” to activate long-moribund provisions of the U.N. Charter. Similarly, columnist Morton Kondracke observed, “the United Nations is suddenly alive again and doing useful work.” Today, that false hope has lost much of its luster.

The U.N. of the 21st Century is fraught with financial shortfalls and an overstretched peacekeeping force that prevent the global body from achieving its objectives. Clearly, then, the United Nations needs reform.

A broadbased overhaul of U.N. financial policies and practices must be executed. For much of its history, the United Nations has been plagued by fraud, waste, and overgrown bureaucracy. Exactly how much fiscal dece

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