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
even when there was no real consensus as to what the right course of action should be. When the pre-conditions for success are present, however, and the U. In the 1990s, a practically bankrupt U. financial outlook are exercised, the United Nations will become a more efficient global entity with a greater chance for success. from fulfilling its lofty ambitions and renders effective peacekeeping utterly impossible.
Common topics in this essay:
United Nations,
OIOS Secretariat,
Accordingly UN,
Brahimi Panel,
Minister Rifkind,
Consequently UN,
Security Council,
Sierra Leone,
united nations,
Boutros-Ghali Secretary-General,
GOP-controlled Congress,
un financial,
peacekeeping force,
brahimi panel,
lakhdar brahimi,
peacekeeping operations,
cold war,
|