HOME :: PUBLICATIONS :: Seeking the Wrong Solutions for the U.N. Security Council?, by PRESIDENTIAL POLICY: DOES IT MAKE THE GRADE?, JAMES JAY CARAFANO, PHD

Seeking the Wrong Solutions for the U.N. Security Council?

by PRESIDENTIAL POLICY: DOES IT MAKE THE GRADE?, JAMES JAY CARAFANO, PHD November 15, 2010
For the first time in a long time, the President made a pot full of foreign policy news last week—most of it not good. Obama’s tour of Asia did little to distract from the sting of his party’s mid-term election drubbing. In India, the President promised to back the country’s bid for a seat on the U.N. Security Council. While improving U.S.-Indian relations ought to be a priority for the White House, this was the wrong initiative to champion. As Heritage expert Bret Schaefer points out:
 
Based on U.S. policy under previous administrations, India’s stance on U.N. Security Council expansion is unacceptable. The U.S. can’t simply approve of permanent seats for Japan and India. Any reform of the U.N. Security Council opens the door for a larger expansion. Under the Bush Administration, the U.S. indicated that it was prepared to accept ‘two or so new permanent members and two or three additional nonpermanent seats, allocated by region, to expand the Council to 19 or 20.’ This is starkly at odds with the proposals being discussed in recent years at the U.N. which involve an expansion of the Council by 10 or 11 seats, including as many as 6 new permanent members. This reluctance is based on experience. The Security Council is by no means perfect. It is subject to delay and indecisiveness. Getting resolutions through the U.N. Security Council involves an enormous amount of effort unless they merely continue the status quo or are without serious content. However, a larger Council would not solve these problems. On the contrary, it would further undermine the Council’s ability to act decisively as timely action would fall victim to political impasse, conflicting interests, or debate among nations that have little to contribute to the Council’s ultimate responsibility—enforcement of international peace and security. The potential for gridlock increases even more if new permanent member possess the veto.”
 
 
The Administration knows that a greatly expanded council is not in the U.S.’s interest. Obama’s promise to India was hollow. In the end, it may do more harm than good to U.S.-Indian relations.
 
Obama’s performance at the G-20 was equally lackluster. The G-20 meetings, concludes Heritage economist Derek Scissors, “produced nothing of substance, which is no surprise because the United States did not lead.”
 
In what Heritage Far East expert Bruce Klingner called Obama’s “Trifecta of Failure,” the President failed to secure a free trade agreement with South Korea. “Even the most ardent Obama supporter should be embarrassed by the collapse of bilateral trade talks with South Korea,” Klingner reports, “President Obama had correctly hailed the South Korea-U.S. free trade agreement (KORUS FTA) as critically important for the United States. The U.S. International Trade Commission estimated that the agreement would increase U.S. exports by $10 billion—a jobs stimulus package that wouldn’t cost the federal government a dime.But once again the trade accord was held hostage to narrow-minded demands by Congressmen and lobbying groups. Clearly, for the Obama White House, special interests trump national interest.”
 
For last week, the President’s foreign policy trip gets an “F” for failure.
 
FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributing Editor James Jay Carafano, Ph.D., is a leading expert in defense affairs, intelligence, military operations and strategy, and homeland security at the Heritage Foundation.
 

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