U.S. Owes U.N. Money, and It’s Time to Pay Up

Among the pitfalls ahead for the Bush administration’s foreign policy, perhaps the most immediately troublesome is the looming crisis in the United States’ relationship with the United Nations. If nothing is done by the time President Bush goes to New York next month for his first meeting with the U.N. General Assembly, his visit promises to be a diplomatic and political disaster.

What makes this prospect especially frustrating is that the year began on such a positive note. Last December, the Clinton administration scored a last-minute diplomatic victory by convincing the U.N. to change its budget rates, thus lowering the U.S. contribution to more reasonable levels. Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.) said the bargain “protected the American taxpayer,” and in January the U.S. Senate agreed by a vote of 99-0 to pay the $582 million the U.S. owed in back dues.

With this deal, President Bush took office with all the pieces in place for a more constructive and mutually advantageous U.S.-U.N. relationship: The U.N. was reforming itself, and Congress was set to pay up.

Rather than build on this success, the Bush administration has failed to close the deal. Following the Senate’s vote, all that remained was for the House to pass legislation allowing the release of the $582 million. But eight months have passed and the administration has not delivered its House allies.

As if this weren’t bad enough, the United States not only is failing to pay old arrears, it is running up new ones. Congress and the administration have yet to remove an arbitrary cap on peacekeeping payments to the U.N. and are budgeting at levels below the amount needed to pay new bills. This problem is compounded by almost $1 billion in current congressional holds on current U.S. contributions, causing serious financial problems at the U.N.

What President Bush needs to do can be summed up in two words: assert leadership.

First, he must insist that Congress immediately send the $582 million to the U.N. It’s in the bank ready to go, we’ve promised it and we’ve already received a great deal for it. Secretary of State Colin Powell recently acknowledged that the president would make a much more powerful statement when he visits the U.N. if he had the money.

There is bipartisan support for this on Capitol Hill. Even Henry Hyde (R-Ill.), the chairman of the House International Relations Committee, has acknowledged that the deal reached last December would save the U.S. more than $2 billion over the next decade. If this is good enough for every U.S. senator, it is hard to understand why the administration is allowing the House leadership to stall.

Second, the president must ensure that the U.S. does not rack up new arrears. He should work with Congress to pass legislation to lift the arbitrary caps on the U.S. share of peacekeeping bills. These limits were introduced to force reform at the U.N. and reduce U.S. payments, both of which have now been largely achieved.

Of course, President Bush’s problems with the U.N. are about more than money. They are also about attitude and approach.

His administration has managed to get the United States kicked off the U.N. Human Rights Commission.

This was followed by a delegation to a conference on small arms that alienated virtually every country in the world by squelching a common-sense approach to preventing a free flow of the arms to the developing world.

Now, by threatening to pull out of the U.N. conference on racism, starting Friday in Durban, South Africa, and to opt out of the International Criminal Court treaty, the administration has further undermined its own leverage to promote U.S. interests.

Countries around the world are looking for evidence that the U.S. will be a reliable partner that respects the outcome of international negotiations. In the short term, there is no better way for the president to prove this than to secure the U.N. arrears money.

With $582 million in his pocket, and a pledge not to run up new debts, Bush would not just put the U.S.-U.N. relationship back on track, but begin to renew the world’s faith in U.S. leadership.