UN malaise

the long version

In the post-Soviet world the UN is repeatedly suborned or ignored by the US, as Washington pursues its own global objectives. At the same time the UN is expected to operate on a worldwide basis, despite inadequate resources and other barriers erected by powerful states. UN personnel, often starved of funds and expertise, are freqeuntly accused of mismanagement, corruption and even the abuse of human rights. There is also the problem of how a restructured UN would best serve the real world community, not the much-cited 'international community' that typically signals the Western interest. Finally, there is the 'other UN' (the UN-linked IMF, the World Bank, and GATT) that pursues global capitalist objectives often inconsistent with the best spirit of the UN. These various problems are considered in detail, leading to a specific 50-point reform agenda as a contribution to the debate on how the UN should evolve in the years ahead.