The U.S. a Guarantor and Challenger of the UN Security System Essay Example for Free

The U.S. a Guarantor and Challenger of the UN Security System Essay The United States of America, through its former president Franklin D. Roosevelt was the founding nation of the United Nations during world war two. The U. S. is one of the permanent member of the UN with veto powers and one of the five Security Council members as well as the major contributor of revenues to the UN, making it a true guarantor of the UN security system. However, since the formation of the UN, the organization has experienced various challenges in executing its duties as a global organization committed to maintaining peace and security, better living standards and human rights, particularly with the United States which has proved somehow to be a stumbling block in the organization effective operation, with the U. S. not respecting U. N. security council resolutions by taking advantage of its mighty economy, huge contribution to the organization and its permanent membership vetting powers to push the UN to comply with its selfish interests, by breaking the organizations security council resolutions hence bringing conflict between the U. S and other security council members. ( Global policy forum, 2008) The United Nations been an international organization, committed to maintaining international peace and security, handles a wide range of issues across the globe. It is best known for peacekeeping, conflict prevention and humanitarian assistance; it requires huge finances to implement its duties. The organizations has a regular two-year budget and its specialized agencies (like UN security agency) are funded by assessments and voluntary contributions from member states. The organization budget is approved by the general assembly, which in addition determines the assessment for each member country, this is mainly based on the capability of each country to pay, although the organizations assembly adheres to its principle of not relying entirely on one member country to finance its operations, hence there is maximum amount which each country can contribute. However the U. S is the only member country that meets the maximum (ceiling rate) making it a true guarantor of the UN security system. In addition to funding the organization operations, the US is one of the five permanent security council members, hence it must participate in approving all peacekeeping and security operations, this a true indication that the U. S is a real guarantor of the UN security systems( Chicago council on global affairs, 2008) The U. S been one of the five permanent members of the UN security council and one of the only five countries recognized as nuclear-weapon states(NWS), it has a permanent representative in the security council hence the U. S participates in investigating any international dispute or any situation which mighty lead to international friction or cause a dispute, the U. S as a security council member take part in deciding what measures are to be taken in situations involving, threat to the peace and it is a stake-holder in recommending on the action to be taken to the concerned countries by either use of armed forces, to maintain and restore international peace and security. For instance the U. S was in the fore-front during the UN armed actions in Korea in 1950 during the Korean War, also the US was the main participant in the use of the coalition forces in Kuwait and Iraq in 1991, making it a true guarantor of the UN security system. (Creery, Janet, 1994) The U. S has been in the forefront as a guarantor and mediator of talks and processes for implementing comprehensive peace agreement needed to assist and bring both north and southern Sudan around one table, laid down their issues and give peace a chance. To understand the drivers of conflict and the gateway to sustainable peace in eastern Sudan, the U. S through its organization called the institute of peace and in partnership with other peace institutions like the Nairobi peace Initiative-Africa, the U. S funded a workshop entitled, Listening to East Sudan, a workshop aimed at assessing the social-economic stresses of the people of eastern Sudan, mobilizing responses in its relentless efforts to see peace and democracy prevail in Sudan (www. usip. org/resources/peacekeeping-and peace building-eastern Sudan) The most remarkable contribution of the United States to the United Nations system was during the Britton woods conference whose objective was to create a new, stable and predictable international monetary and trade regime. This new system opened world markets, promoted a liberal economy and paved way for the birth of different UN institutions like the World Bank and international monetary fund to assist in implementing UNs duties. The United States significantly supported the UN, through funding and other ways making the UN the first international organization to receive a huge financial support fro the U. S. this institutions among others are the building blocks of the UN hence the U. S is one of the financial cornerstones and a guarantor of the UN security systems. (Schweigman, David,2001) The United States has show remarkable efforts in its aggressiveness to see the whole world is at peace and there are no threats to any country. In its efforts to bring peace and sanity in this world, the country has sacrificed its expensive and high-tech military equipment and personnel, for instance in Afghanistan in its efforts to do away with terrorist and other terrorist groups like the Somalia pirates and militia groups such as the alshabab, an activity which is a security responsibility of organizations like the UN. Moreover, recently the whole world witnessed the U. S efforts in Kenya an African country where sometimes back experienced a very severe post-election violence, many innocent and poverty-stricken people including women and children as well as jobless youths lost their lives, the country has since independence experiencing bad leadership because of its outdated, colonial constitution, The US has been tireless in its effort to see the country come up with its people driven constitution, it has financed these process and it was just a few days when the country voted and endorsed a new constitution, a process which the U. S has been pushing for a very long time, hence the U. S has been an icon in maintaining international peace and security making it is a true guarantor of the UN security system because it is in fact executing some of the main UN roles(Samir, Alhawary, 2008) United States has been one of the main supporters of the UN, in various ways and even sometimes implementing some of the core functions of the organization, however, in some other various occasions, the unites States has been a bottleneck to the UN smooth and effective operation. Former U. S president, President Franklin D. Roosevelt was the leader behind the establishment of the UN during world war two . He suggested to his allies especially, Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin, the need for a joint organization which could become the primary vehicle for maintaining international peace and stability. Roosevelt was the one who came up with the idea of some member countries being granted veto powers, such that without the agreement of any member with veto powers the organization cannot execute any crucial resolution. The veto issue brought a lot of disagreements among different member states but it was not a matter of negotiation for Roosevelt and his allies, hence this is where the rain started biting the organization because even to date the U. S hardly respect the decision of other member countries and this has been a source of conflict between the U. S and other members who have been proposing the U. S to be chased out of the organization, this is a major challenge to the organization considering that the U. S is one of its faithful financers. (De Wet, Erika, 2004) Some member countries and mostly the United States have been pushing for various reforms to be carried out within the organization. Some want the UN to play a greater or more effective way in the world affairs, others want its mandate to be reduced to humanitarian work, others have been calling for the expansion of the organizations security council memberships among other issues although there has been little consensus on how to handle all this issues. The United States has also been accusing the organization for been inefficiency, this has been a challenge to the organizations operation. The organization experienced on of its ground breaking challenge during the1990, when the U. S withheld its dues citing inefficiencies and only started repayment when its condition of major reform initiative was introduced in 1994, when the organizations general assembly established the office of internal oversight services to serve as a watch dog. | (American interests and UN reforms, 2006)