Majority of Americans: Reform or Replace the United Nations

Posted by Joerg Wolf in US Foreign Policy on Tuesday, September 12. 2006

"A majority of Americans (57%) now believe the United Nations should be scrapped and replaced if it cannot be reformed and made more effective", according to a telephone poll conducted on behalf of the Hudson Institute:

75% believe the UN is no longer "effective" and "needs to be held more accountable."
71% believe the UN "needs to be considerably reformed."
67% believe "there are too many undemocratic nations in the UN that do not care about promoting democracy and freedom."

Nobody doubts the need for reform, but there are strong disagreements among the member countries about how to do so. To support more cooperation among the democracies in the world, the Community of Democracies should be strengthened, but I am not aware of any serious efforts to strengthen this forum founded in 2000. The United Nations, however, cannot and should not limit its membership to democracies. The UN is not an alliance like NATO, but has a different purpose. Besides, you don't make peace with your friends, but with your enemies.
The Foreign Policy blog writes:

The poll confirms that since 9/11, Americans have become more skeptical of the global body. Fifty-two percent of respondents feel more unfavorable toward the United Nations and just 27 percent feel more favorable. (...) A plurality—44 to 37 percent—feels that the United Nations generally opposes U.S. interests. (...) The poll, though, is far from all bad news for those who support greater U.S. engagement with the United Nations. A whopping 73 percent favor the United States taking a "a more active role in the UN" as it is "the best way for us to influence world affairs."

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GM Roper - #1 - 2006-09-12 15:09 - (Reply)

Good post Joerg, and I agree that you make peace with your enemies. Having said that, I wish that the "non-democratic" members of the UN subscribed to that idea as well. Until they do, if they do, peace will always be elusive.

Cheers!

Anonymous - #2 - 2006-09-12 16:30 - (Reply)

The nation also says:

European Tribune - TIME Cover Today: Amazing Climate Crisis Poll
"85% of Americans say global warming is probably happening.

88% believe global warming threatens the future, with 60% agreeing it threatens future generations a great deal.

49% say the issue of global warming is 'extremely' or 'very important' to them personally, up from 31% in 1998.

When asked about the causes of rise in the world's temperatures, 49% feel it is a combination of the results of human activity and natural cycles.

68% believe their American government should do more to address global warming.

52% report that weather patterns in the county where they live have grown more unstable in the last three years.

70% thinks weather patterns globally have become more unstable in the last three years.

66% say Bush's policies did little or nothing to help the environment this years.

75% want Bush and Congress, along with American businesses, to take action to help the environment.

62% believe much can be done to curb global warming.

61% would support government mandates on lowering power plant emissions."
http://www.eurotrib.com/story/2006/3/27/34537/3824

Isolationist - #3 - 2006-09-12 16:56 - (Reply)

I live for the day when 57% of the American people support an isolationist foreigh policy.

Don - #4 - 2006-09-12 18:45 - (Reply)

Having a problem with the UN (or is that the EN?) is not quite the same as isolation.

When the European nations who largely dominate the UN (EN?) make the UN into a hostile zone for the US (as was done for a time between 2001 and 2005 in particular), the US pursues it's objectives by other means.

The Europeans have realized that the UN isn't the same when the US isn't taking a particularly active role, so the past couple of years things have thawed to an extenet. Public opinion in the US hasn't caught up with the thaw yet. And it's perfectly possible to overstate the extenet of the thaw. The UN (EN) is less hostile than it was to the US, but only marginally.

Still I find the trend encouraging and sincerely hope it continues.

Fuchur - #5 - 2006-09-13 13:36 - (Reply)

IMO, with the UN, it´s like with many other things: It´s eays to point out the many shortcomings - but quite hard to propose a better alternative.

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