The United Nations is complaining that it has a $230 million budget shortfall. The problem, the organization says, is that countries aren’t paying their dues. One of the nations that has not delivered all of its expected dues is the United States.
Good.
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America has the right to see the U.N. reform itself before we hand over 22% of its budget. U.N. Secretary General António Guterres says his budget shortfall is a disaster, but it’s more of an opportunity. The U.N. remains deeply inefficient, wasteful, corrupt, and subservient to malevolent interests. That will not change without leverage.
The U.S. has outsized influence here. And as the leader of the free world, it is up to us to take the lead.
While President Trump could be more nuanced in his personal engagement with U.N. leaders, he is absolutely correct to be furious with the U.N.’s current condition. We continue to pay vast sums to the organization, including in peacekeeping operations that are funded outside of the budget Guterres is complaining about. What do we and the world get in return?
Too many U.N. officials live in opulence as they perform bureaucratic waltzes. Far too little of the U.N. budget goes to that which would actually help people who need help: field operations. There are simply too many failures on issues of security and stability. Too many anti-American investigations that degrade our sovereignty (a new U.N. indictment against America was issued on Wednesday). We shouldn’t accept these things as the normal course of events.
Gutteres says that the budget shortfalls mean he is considering “further reductions in official travel; postponing spending on goods and services; and discontinuing events scheduled outside official meeting hours at headquarters duty stations. In addition, conferences and meetings may have to be postponed or services be adjusted.”
Again, good. Do those things now. Why on Earth is the U.N. conducting events outside of duty stations anyway? Why are they doing events at high-end hotels and restaurants when they can do those events at their own offices? Because the organization is arrogant and wasteful and doesn’t care about the nations that fund it, let alone their citizens. The U.S. and the world deserve better value for money here, and they won’t get it unless they push for it.
