The Senate Foreign Relations Committee is holding confirmation hearings this afternoon for five nominees. One of the nominees, Jide J. Zeitlin, is being nominated to be Representative of the United States to the United Nations for U.N. Management and Reform and to hold the rank of Ambassador. There are a …
On the anniversary of the November 2008 election, it seems appropriate to assess the impact of the Administration on America’s relationship with the United Nations. After all, one of President Obama’s sharpest criticisms of the Bush Administration was its supposed resistance to multilateral efforts—particularly U.N.-led multilateral efforts—to resolve international problems. …
Last month, President Obama proudly announced at the United Nations the steps taken under his administration to “embrace a new era of engagement” in international affairs by correcting the actions of past administration that might lead people to “question the character and cause” of America including supporting the Comprehensive Nuclear …
The era of engaging the world’s worst actors continues apace with the recent announcement that the United Nations Development Program has formally returned to North Korea and restarted its program there on Wednesday September 30, 2009. For those who don’t know the history, information provided by whistleblowers to the U.S. …
Earlier this year, there was an unexpected change in government in Honduras. On June 28, President Manuel Zelaya of Honduras was removed from power with support of Honduras’ Congress and the nation’s courts. In accordance with the Honduran constitution, Zelaya was replaced with Interim President Robert Micheletti. Although some have …
As if we needed another example of why the U.N. and its affiliated organizations have earned a reputation for poor accountability, opacity, and mismanagement, along comes a scandal from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). The WMO is a U.N. specialized agency based in Geneva. The U.S. is a member of …
One of the early decisions the Obama Administration made to differentiate itself from the “unilateralist” Bush Administration was to announce that the U.S. would run for a seat on the U.N. Human Rights Council. The Council was created in 2006 to replace the hugely discredited U.N. Commission on Human Rights …
Geneva – Earlier today, the Durban Review Conference outcome document was adopted by consensus. This is highly unusual for U.N. conferences. Generally, they are designed to culminate with the adoption of the outcome document on the last day. Implausibly, the Durban II president declared that this was a triumph of …
