From a
UN News email I recieved today, a fascinating tidbit:
WITH 14 PER CENT INCREASE IN VISITORS, UN HEADQUARTERS INDUCTS NEW GUIDES
New York, Mar 10 2006 12:00PM
With the number of visitors to United Nations Headquarters in New York rising by 14 per cent last year to more than 412,000, a new group of multilingual guides, including one in sign language, is set to join a select band that has shown over 38 million people around the landmark building on the East River since 1952.
14% increase in visitors? Wow. This has led me to look up some polling data, and surprise surprise, here's yet another policy area where Republicans are far outside the mainstream of American opinion.
America Supports the UN. Surpirse!
First up, let's refresh on some comments from the US Ambassador to the United Nations, one
John Bolton:
If you think that there is any possibility in this country that a 51,000 person bureaucracy is going to be supported by most Americans, you better think again. The Secretariat Building in New York has 38 stories. If you lost 10 stories today it wouldn't make a bit of difference.
Oh Really? It seems 52% of Americans still have a generally positive view of the UN, against only 36 percent with a negative view. Worrying though, is that it was 59% positive in the previous poll. The cumulative attack on the UN is yielding dividends for the right wing. They say the "UN doesn't work" and then send people like John Bolton to the UN to prove it. Another self-fulfilling prophecy.
Some 2004 polling has some other valuable bits:
Strong majorities agree that the United States should be more willing to make decisions within the UN even if this means the United States will have to go along with a policy that is not its first choice. Significantly, a clear majority of the public favors changing UN Security Council rules so that no single member could veto a decision favored by all other members.
Sorry Mr. Bolton, Americans want the UN to be effective, and are actually willing to accept that the UN could overrule the US on foreign policy decisions, and moreso, they want the US (along with the other permanent 4) to give up their veto powers in the Security council. Honestly this is news to me, but as a Canadian, I'm glad to hear it. It seems Americans too understand that veto powers for only 5 countries are unfair and serve to make the UN ineffective.
More:
Strong majorities of both the public and leaders say decisions in international economic organizations should always be made by a majority of members without the possibility of a U.S. veto and favor U.S. compliance with unfavorable WTO rulings. The public also roundly endorses giving the World Health Organization the authority to intervene in a country in response to a world health crisis even if the country disagrees.
Wow. Surrendering more soverignty to the shifty WHO? To the WTO also?
Similarly, the public and leaders favor U.S. participation in the nuclear test ban treaty, the treaty banning the use of land mines, the Kyoto agreement to reduce global warming, and the International Criminal Court (ICC). They additionally support the trial of international terrorists in the ICC and the United States making a general commitment to accept World Court decisions.
I'm literally discovering all this as you are. I had no idea Americans actually favoured Kyoto, the Ottawa Treaty (landmines) and the ICC! This is awesome stuff. Could republicans be more out of the mainstream on foreign policy? Americans are international cooperators! We need the Democrats to tap into these views and bring America back to being a net-positive force for Good in the world.
American public and leaders have a positive feeling toward the UN, believe it should have a stronger role than the United States in helping Iraqis write a new constitution and build a democratic government, support U.S. participation in UN peacekeeping activities, and favor strengthening the organization through creating a standing UN peacekeeping force and giving the UN the power to regulate the international arms trade. A plurality of the public supports giving the UN the power to fund its activities by taxing the international sale of arms or oil; a plurality of leaders oppose this.
Allowing the UN to tax oil and arms! Holy shit. I hadn't even heard of this idea before, and you idealist UN-lovers are for it.
I feel like I should stop here, but I'm really only giving this subject a superficial exposure. There is a plethora of other polling showing how much Americans actually support the UN (over 90% wanted a stronger US involvement in the UN in 2001), and multilaterialism in general. The Republicans and Conservatives are wrong for America on these issues. Unfortunately the Democrats haven't been able to take advantage of this.
I know next to bread-and-butter issues, esoteric things like the UN, the ICC and the Land-mine treaties are not going to sway all that many voters alone.
I'll close by noting that huge international majorities also want dramatic UN reform, to make the organization more effective. See it here. I think this is a hopeful sign that the UN is not an anachronism, nor irrelevant. The world wants and needs the UN, and generally wants it to be more than just a talking forum for diplomats. We (the world) want the UN to have teeth.
Let's not let the Republicans succeed in destroying this vital world body. The very thing the world realized was needed to break the perpetual cycle of wars under balance-of-power international systems, a system the world could no longer afford in the era of nuclear weapons. Even without nukes, the horrors of WWII must never be repeated. The current UN may not be able to prevent another WW, but it is clear the world wants it to be able to. It is only our leaders who prevent that.