The un-diplomat

And how the right misunderstands the role of the UN

2006.08.09 — Government | Politics | World | by Derek Jensen

John Bolton is fighting for his job as US ambassador to the United Nations. He was, you will recall, appointed by the president while the Congress was in recess because it was pretty clear that Democrats would filibuster him and Republicans didn't have the votes to overcome it. A lot has been said about Bolton's "kiss-up, kick-down" approach to office management, and his temper is legendary. He's even pulled some stunts in his brief time at the UN that have made diplomats the world over hate him. And that's Bolton's real problem: it's not the job of a diplomat to kick ass and take names. They are supposed to be diplomatic.

And they aren't supposed to be diplomatic because it's nice to be nice to the nice. They are supposed to be diplomatic because it's effective. You show respect to your fellow world leaders and they show respect to you. They may cheat on your resolutions, do an end run around your sanctions, and take a powder when they ought to be condemning tyranny, but berating them isn't going to stop them. Clever diplomacy may.

Conservatives—and I include the Bush administration in this group only as a courtesy—misunderstand the purpose and function of the United Nations at the most fundamental level. Bolton thinks the UN is a sort of legislative body, like Congress, that should always be doing things and dealing with world conflict and making the world work. In short: he thinks the UN is a world government.

But no international body of representatives of sovereign nations is ever going to work that way. And conservatives don't want it to work that way. Hell, liberals don't want it to work that way either. George W Bush raised a hue and cry during the last election when he implied that John Kerry would let the French help decide our foreign policy (Kerry, you may remember, boldly suggested that we consult with our allies before invading other countries—imagine that).

The purpose of the UN is to bring nations together to form agreements that are acceptable to all of them—or nearly all of them—thus making the world a slightly better place. It's a weak organization; it's supposed to be. It is not a place where a majority of countries can bully the minority or where the power brokers can put iron-clad sanctions on one of their fellow members. It is not a courtroom, where a judgment can be handed down that must be abided by all. It is a convention of statesmen and hucksters who exchange ideas and opinions, a world community town square, where everyone is free to agree or disagree and then go off do as they please.

There are benefits to complying with UN resolutions and not flouting sanctions. There are benefits to remaining an upstanding member of the world community. But where those benefits are outweighed by national interest (even short term, unfortunately), nations will continue to ignore them.

Bolton and other members of the Bush administration are so dumb that they think that America, by virtue of being the most powerful nation in the world, gets to automatically be the leader of the UN and get done whatever it wants. They think that being the big dog at the UN is like being the majority party in Congress: what we say goes; like it or lump it.

It wouldn't matter much that Bolton is a jackass if he were effective, but when it comes to diplomacy, it is impossible to be effective if you are a jackass. Bolton has said plainly that the only interest America has, and the only interest he is planning to further in the UN, is America's interest.

The United States makes the U.N. work when it wants it to work, and that is exactly the way it should be, because the only question, only question for the United States is what's in our national interest. And if you don't like that, I'm sorry, but that is the fact.

Bolton isn't making a broad philosophical point here about America's interests being a stable, democratic, and prosperous world. He is saying that we, as a nation, are planning to be as nationalistic as possible from now on and we don't care what will make the world a better place as a whole, even if it would—in the long run—benefit us more than being selfish.

Think of that for a moment. Under John Bolton, it is now official US government foreign policy to be short-sighted and selfish.

But the world's interest is our interest—more so for us than for any other nation. Being the biggest at virtually everything and certainly the most international country means that our tendrils have snaked out and taken root all over the globe.

We need to care what goes on in China and India because they are huge trading partners. We need to care what goes on in the Middle East because it is generating terrorism. We need to care what goes on in Africa because Africa is likely the next big thing—for good or ill—in geopolitics. Any moron should be able see that.

But John Bolton isn't just any moron. He's George W Bush's moron.

f e e d b a c k

Respond to this page by your e-mail client. Please be sure to mention the title of the article.

s i d e b a r