US UN Relations

Prof. Benjamin Rivlin

Project Director
read bio

The National Committee on American Foreign Policy Project on U.S.-UN Relations is designed to foster better understanding of the relationship between U.S. foreign policy and the cluster of intergovernmental organizations that make up the United Nations system. The agendas of each and every specialized agency, subsidiary, or functional commission and council impinge on American interests and are of concern to its policymakers. But of greatest interest are the organs operating at the New York headquarters of the UN, that is, the General Assembly, the Security Council, the Economic and Social Council, the Human Rights Council, the Secretariat, and its head, the UN secretary general.

The United States was instrumental in the establishment of the United Nations as World War II was nearing an end. The key feature of the new organization was the world policing powers embodied in Chapter VII of the Charter that spelled out the machinery to be used by the Security Council in taking “Action with Respect to Threats to the Peace, Breaches of the Peace and Acts of Aggression.” With the notable exceptions of Korea (1950) and Iraq-Kuwait (1990), the record of the Security Council since 1945 has been one of ineffectiveness and frustration. The Security Council usually set lofty goals for resolving a dispute but rarely provided clear instructions or the wherewithal for their achievement.

The dismal record of the UN in the quest for peace and the contentiousness that has permeated the General Assembly and the other organs of the UN system have led to a persistent campaign for consigning the UN to the dustbin of history. But the UN has withstood those pressures and remains a fixture in the terrestrial firmament. The UN reflects the complex world with its diverse peoples, cultures, nations, religions, and conflicting interests. The world has changed since the UN was created in 1945. So has the UN; instead of the original 51, primarily Western signatory states to the UN Charter, today membership has risen to 192 member states in the General Assembly, dominated by an overwhelming majority from the South. The challenge to US policymakers is to recognize the potential inherent in the various UN institutions, with all their faults, for promoting American interests and leadership in the world.