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If the invasion and occupation of Iraq has provided the U.S. with one lesson, it is that international institutions work. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) argued before the invasion that Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction. The Bush administration and Congress disagreed. The IAEA was right.
Since its inception, the United Nations and related international organizations like the IAEA have served as a forum to resolve global disputes and address transnational problems such as extreme poverty, terrorism, weapons proliferation, climate change, and disease.
As these 21st century challenges are increasingly transnational, a well-funded and functional UN is needed more than ever. The U.N.’s successes and failures in responding to global crisis are largely dependent on the actions of member states, especially the most powerful states.
As the richest and most powerful country in the world, the U.S. can substantially increase the U.N.'s capacity to solve global problems through sufficient funding. Unfortunately, the U.S. is the largest debtor to the U.N. with more than $2.8 billion in arrears. More than $1.2 billion of U.S. arrears is owed towards UN peacekeeping operations endorsed by the U.S., such as the missions in Sudan, Haiti and Kosovo.
UN peacekeeping operations are both cost effective and a highly efficient means of facilitating a sustainable peace in post-conflict states, a study by the Rand Corporation shows. When the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) compared costs for a UN peacekeeping operation in Haiti to anticipated costs for a similar U.S. operation, the GAO found that a U.S. peacekeeping operation would be twice as expensive as the UN’s operation. In short, UN peacekeeping is a bargain for the U.S. in terms of saving lives and resources.
Yet, the U.S. government continues to vote to support U.N. led peacekeeping operations, while shortfunding U.N. peacekeeping and related international organizations like the IAEA. In his 2009 budget request, President Bush has requested a decrease in funding for international peacekeeping missions- approximately $200 million less than what the US gave to the UN last year, even though the UN is being requested to undertake a larger role in providing for global security. Congress should reject the failed, unilateral model of world engagement and demonstrate the U.S. commitment to multilateral cooperation by paying the U.S. debt to the UN and providing generous funding for this integral institution in the future.
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