14 August 2009
United States “Ready to Lead Once More” at United Nations
Washington — The Obama administration recognizes that the well-being and security of Americans is “inextricably linked” to that of people everywhere in the world, and it is making “rather dramatic changes” toward multilateralism in its approach to the United Nations, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Susan Rice says.
“The United States is back,” Rice said August 12 at New York University in New York. “We work with passion and resolve because we know that the change that has come to America can also change the world. The time for action is now. The challenges we face are vast. But the opportunities are even greater. And we will seize them.”
Extraordinary global challenges, such as the dangers of nuclear proliferation, climate change, pandemic disease and the global financial crisis, threaten U.S. security in the 21st century, she said.
“If ever there were a time for effective multilateral cooperation in pursuit of U.S. interests and a shared future of greater peace and prosperity, it is now,” she said. Cooperation requires a greater number of “capable, democratic states” with the political will to tackle transnational challenges.
But Rice, who served as a foreign policy adviser to Obama during the 2008 presidential campaign, said the administration acknowledges the “simple reality” that if the United States wants other nations to cooperate on the threats it is most concerned with, the United States must also cooperate with them on their most pressing challenges.
“For many nations, those threats are first and foremost the things that afflict human beings in their daily lives: corruption, repression, conflict, hunger, poverty, disease and a lack of education and opportunity,” Rice said.
“When we manifest our commitment to tackling the threats that menace so many other nations; when we invest in protecting the lives of others; and when we recognize that national security is no longer a zero-sum game, then we increase other countries’ will to cooperate on the issues most vital to us,” Rice said.
When at its best, the United Nations helps rebuild societies shattered by conflict and disaster, lays the foundations for democracy and development, and creates conditions where people can live in dignity and mutual respect, she said.
At the same time, the Obama administration is aware that the United Nations is imperfect, with divisions in the Security Council, which have affected responses to crises in places like Darfur, Zimbabwe and Burma; distractive “political theater” in the General Assembly, which sees Israel “unfairly singled out”; and a system with “waste and abuse” that must be confronted and still meet “daunting new responsibilities,” Rice said.
Rice outlined several approaches that distinguish the new approach of the United States to the United Nations under the Obama administration.
The administration is turning to the United Nations to promote U.S. core national security interests in areas such as nuclear proliferation, promoting stability and development in Iraq and Afghanistan and the use of peacekeepers around the world to prevent violent conflicts from flaring up and destabilizing surrounding countries, she said.
Second, it is now participating in the U.N. Human Rights Council after previously refusing to seek a seat on that body. Rice acknowledged shortcomings of the council, where “dictators were not called to account for their records of repression, abused citizens did not have their voices heard, obsessive, [and] unproductive Israel-bashing raged on.” But the U.S. refusal to participate had achieved nothing, she said.
“Real change does not come from sitting on the sidelines. Real change can only come through painstaking, principled diplomacy. So we will work hard to reduce customary divisions. We will demand fair treatment for Israel. We will amplify the voices of those suffering under the world’s cruelest regimes. And we will lead by example through our actions at home and our support for those risking their lives for democracy and human rights abroad,” Rice said.
Only seven months into its term, the Obama administration has reversed several previous U.S. policies by embracing the U.N.’s Millennium Development goals, allowing U.S. assistance to fund programs that support family planning and reproductive health services, contributing to the U.N. Population Fund, signing the U.N.’s Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, backing a General Assembly statement opposing violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation, and ending opposition to language that mentions reproductive health or the International Criminal Court.
The United States will meet its obligations to the United Nations, Rice said. “Our dues to the United Nations are treaty obligations, and we are committed to working with Congress to pay them in full and on time,” she said. Congress is allowing the United States to clear its accumulated 2005–2008 arrears to the United Nations’ regular and peacekeeping budgets, and Rice said the 2009 peacekeeping obligations will be paid in full.
In the Obama administration’s pending budget request to Congress, it has made provisions to keep its payments current and “allow us to move toward ending the practice, started in the 1980s, of paying our bills to the U.N. and many other major international organizations nearly a year late,” she said.
Through responsible leadership, a tone of decency and respect, “pragmatic, principled policies” and abiding by rules it expects other countries to follow, the Obama administration will build the political will of other countries to work with it in addressing global challenges, Rice said.
A transcript of Rice’s remarks is available on America.gov.
What foreign affairs decisions should President Obama consider? Comment on America.gov’s blog Obama Today.
