Who’s the Deadbeat?

UNITED Nations reform is back in the news. Shortly after his appointment as secretary general, Kofi Annan, a career UN bureaucrat from Ghana, traveled to Washington to assure congressional leaders that he shared their concerns and was committed to reducing waste and inefficiency in the world body. President Clinton and Secretary of State Albright welcomed the new secretary general’s determination to carry out reform. But why, after nearly two decades of U.S. effort, is UN reform still an issue?

The UN’s resistance to change is often blamed on the UN bureaucracy itself, or on the Third World countries that dominate the General Assembly. In fact, much of the fault lies closer to home.

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Michael P. Michalski

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UNITED Nations reform is back in the news. Shortly after his appointment as secretary general, Kofi Annan, a career UN bureaucrat from Ghana, traveled to Washington to assure congressional leaders that he shared their concerns and was committed to reducing waste and inefficiency in the world body. President Clinton and Secretary of State Albright welcomed the new secretary general’s determination to carry out reform. But why, after nearly two decades of U.S. effort, is UN reform still an issue?

The UN’s resistance to change is often blamed on the UN bureaucracy itself, or on the Third World countries that dominate the General Assembly. In fact, much of the fault lies closer to home.