Rebuilding the UN from the Ground Up

Speaking of decrepit New York City landmarks, Mark Leon Goldberg reports on a major renovation of the 50-year-old United Nations building, which would have condemned "long ago if not for the fact that it falls under international jurisdiction." According to the UN News Centre, the current buildings are "plagued by leaks, safety violations and outdated systems." Somehow, that seems ...

McCain the Anti-War Warrior?

In the cover story of the new American Prospect, Matt Yglesias describes John McCain thusly: The candidate who, despite his protestations in a March speech that he "hates war," not only stridently backed the 2003 invasion of Iraq but has spent years calling on the United States to depose every dictator in the world. He's the candidate of ratcheting-up action against ...

U.S. Foreign Policy in the Post-Bush Era

Fareed Zakaria argues that John McCain's foreign policy would be bellicose whereas Barack Obama's would be conciliatiatory but, as Dave Schuler notes, both are "confrontational" and "interventionist," just with slightly different priorities. Zakaria points to a recent McCain speech: Not only does it declare war on Russia and China, it places the United States in active opposition to all nondemocracies. It proposes ...

Does John McCain Want to Kill the UN?

During a major foreign policy address yesterday, John McCain talked about his plan to create a League of Democracies. Charles Krauthammer sees a plot to do away with the United Nations: Well, I like the idea of the league of democracies, and only in part because I and others had proposed it about six years ago. What I like about ...

New Face Of Hunger

Ban Ki-moon, the UN Secretary General, warns that the rapidly escalating price of food is increasing world hunger. The prices of basic staples -- wheat, corn, rice -- are at record highs, up 50 percent or more in the past six months. Global food stocks are at historic lows. The causes range from rising demand in major economies such as India ...

Russia Denounces Kosovo Independence Declaration, On Collision Course with West (Updated)

As expected, Russia is not pleased with Kosovo's secession from Serbia. Russia denounced Kosovo's independence declaration Sunday, warning that the move threatened to ignite a new conflict in the Balkans and calling on NATO and U.N. officials in the territory to nix the decision. Russia requested a meeting of the U.N. Security Council, which held closed-door talks Sunday afternoon. Russia, which ...

Russia Starts Iran Nuclear Deliveries

Russia has began delivery of nuclear fuel to Iran, defying UN resolutions calling on Iran to give up its nuclear enrichment program. Russia on Monday announced the start of nuclear fuel deliveries for Iran's first atomic power station, brushing aside US and Israeli claims that Tehran harbours secret bomb-making plans. "On December 16, 2007, Atomstroiexport began delivery of the fuel ...

Let George Do It!

Dave Schuler wins Line of the Day honors for this comment on Alex Knapp's post about the differences between the Clinton and Obama foreign policies: There's a razor's edge between greater reliance on international institutions and “let George do it”. I'm personally and professionally committed to the use of international institutions, particularly NATO and various international trade regimes, as a vehicle ...

Is the UN to Blame for its Failures?

Joe Nye, the premier soft power theorist, defends the United Nations from its critics from the Right, arguing they don't understand the value of international legitimacy. After the failure of the League of Nations in the 1930’s, the UN was designed to have the Security Council’s permanent members act as policemen to enforce collective security. When the great powers agreed, ...

U.N. Overstated H.I.V. Cases by Millions

The global AIDS crisis is less dire than it has been portrayed, the UN admits. The United Nations’ AIDS-fighting agency plans to issue a report today acknowledging that it overestimated the size of the epidemic and that new infections with the deadly virus have been dropping each year since they peaked in the late 1990s. The agency, Unaids, will ...

Darfur Mission Desperate for Helicopters, Trucks

The latest UN effort to bring peace to Darfur could fail before it starts for want of some trucks and helicopters. The joint UN-African Union peacekeeping mission to Darfur may fail unless countries can provide helicopters and lorries, a top UN official says. Foot-dragging by Sudan over the make-up of the force could also threaten the mission, he warns. The 26,000-strong ...

Americans Want Allies, Willing to Go Alone

The United Nations Foundation has released a new survey showing that Americans overwhelmingly prefer multilateral solutions to foreign policy issues. Mark Leon Goldberg provides an executive summary: The United Nations Foundation released the results of a major survey of Americans' foreign policy attitudes today. Americans, the poll finds, are virtually unanimous (86% of all voters) in the belief that working ...

Bill Richardson’s New Realism

Foreign Affairs has, over the last several issues, had one major Republican and one major Democrat publish an essay under their name outlining the foreign policy agenda they would pursue if elected president. Bill Richardson was either tired of waiting or figured he wouldn't be asked, so instead published his in the latest issue of The National Interest. ...

McCain Calls for ‘League of Democracies’

In a conference call with bloggers this morning, Senator John McCain argued that the United States should convene a League of Democracies to get friendly nations to put more severe pressure on Iran. I was able to get in the first question and followed up on this idea, asking whether he was talking about a "NATO Plus" organization or something ...

Al Gore Wins Nobel Peace Prize

Former Vice President Al Gore has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Former Vice President Al Gore and the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change won the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize Friday for their efforts to spread awareness of man-made climate change and lay the foundations for counteracting it. Gore's film "An Inconvenient Truth," a documentary on global ...