U.S. Consul for Public Affairs David
Bustamante at the Model United Nations
inauguration at Milan's Bocconi University.
I
would like to thank the team of administrators, teachers and students from Liceo Manzoni who have organized this event, educational authorities from the city of Milan, and our hosts from Milan’s world famous Bocconi University, for giving me the opportunity to speak at the inauguration of your Model United Nations conference today. I hope all of you really work hard over the next couple days, and see firsthand some of the challenges diplomats like me face in an often tough political climate where the incredible growth in global issues increasingly needs to be confronted in multilateral fora, and in which diplomatic skills become the fine line between social breakdown and violence. My household has just lived through the drama of my own 17 year old son, Rob, learning the role of South African Ambassador in the Dublin Model United Nations last month, so I know you’re all going to learn a lot, and, from Rob’s experience, also find time for some fun.
The United Nations recently celebrated its 60th anniversary. It is a large and complex organization whose responsibilities grow every day. A quick look at the front page of the UN’s website confirms the complexity of the UN agenda:
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Peacekeeping;
- Stopping trafficking in persons;
- Strengthening civil society;
- Safeguarding the rights of women and children;
- Protecting human rights;
- Assuring good governance;
- Providing universal access to quality health care;
- Distributing humanitarian relief;
- Enforcing the law of the sea;
- Feeding, protecting and repatriating refugees;
- Fomenting economic growth via research and development;
- Fighting terrorism;
- Fighting intolerance;
- Supporting respect for ethnic, religious and national diversity;
- Fighting HIV/AIDS;
- Stopping the trade in illegal drugs;
- Supporting democracy;
- Assuring universal market access;
- Respecting intellectual property rights;
- Coordinating action on the environment and climate change.
Model United Nations, Bocconi University, Milan.
It should come as no surprise that the UN’s annual budget recently surpassed $3 billion. I am proud to say that the United States remains the UN’s largest contributor, paying 22% of the UN’s growing regular budget, and about 27% of its peacekeeping costs. On top of that, we give generously to support the work of specialized UN agencies providing humanitarian relief, electoral assistance, food aid, and more. Our close cooperation with the UN, and our economic support for it, highlights the degree to which we recognize its importance in meeting our own foreign policy goals, and in making the world a better place.
Working with the UN, I’m happy to announce, we just helped conclude, earlier this week, a peace agreement in Darfur between the Sudanese government and the chief rebel group. The African Union and the United Nations will play significant roles in disarming factions, maintaining the peace and returning hundreds of thousands of displaced refugees, we hope, to their homes over the next few years.
America at the UN: Acting Multilaterally
For the United States, the United Nations remains our top ally. Our objectives worldwide are to preserve peace, promote democracy and freedom, protect the innocent, and advance economic and sustainable development. These goals were established in the Cold War, when the United Nations got its start – in San Francisco, in my beloved home state of California, by the way. They require little updating today, except to add that the Cold War has ended, the war against terrorism has become more important, HIV/AIDS is greatly enhancing mortality in some of our most vulnerable populations, and human traffickers and organized criminals just seem to keep getting better organized. It is hard to foresee the challenges your generation will face in the next 25 years. Foreign policy must constantly adapt to new threats as they occur over time.
While we will deal with security issues unilaterally as a last resort, we continue to make a first effort to deal with these crises in multilateral fora, as you have seen in our pursuit of peace in the Middle East, and in response to Iran’s threat of nuclear terrorism, or in our police efforts to defeat international terrorism. Other good examples include our early response to the Asian tsunami, and our new international partnership on the avian flu.
U.S. Consul for Public Affairs David Bustamante briefs students
from Liceo Manzoni about the Model United Nations.
In this age of new problems and partnerships, you might ask when we choose to work an issue via multilateral organizations, and when we deal with issues bilaterally. After all, it is easier to come to an agreement with one other country than it is for us to come to an agreement with 191 individual countries, given each nation’s different national interests and perceptions. Yet we often find multilateral cooperation to be the best way to deal with an issue. There are four key situations in which the nations of the world come together to respond multilaterally.
• First, global threats and global crises often need global solutions. Terrorism, nuclear non-proliferation, HIV/AIDS, environmental disasters, narcotics trafficking – these threats know no borders. Multilateral and regional agreements are the most effective way to protect people from them.
• Second, the best platforms for advancing our values of freedom, democracy, and prosperity are usually, in fact, the broadest ones. As President Bush has said, freedom and democracy are the birthright of everyone, not just Americans. We believe that freedom, democracy, and security are mutually reinforcing. With many people still oppressed by tyrants, with many people lacking basic human rights and suffering from extreme poverty, we need fora where we can make the case for freedom, democracy and human rights to the non-democracies of the world. In any number of international bodies, we are doing just that.
• Third, multilateral organizations can be the most efficient way to set international standards. There are international standards for behavior, and also for dealing with civil needs like delivering the mail. You rarely hear news, for example, about the Universal Postal Union. Yet it has been a key reason our letters and parcels arrive where we want them to, at a reasonable cost, and despite different national postal systems and different infrastructures that nations have established for delivering the mail. Other good examples of such international cooperation are the International Maritime Organization and the International Civil Aviation Organization, both under the UN umbrella. These organizations are pivotal in getting all the nations to strengthen their security standards, so that we can travel the world's seas and skies more safely in these days of terrorism.
• Fourth, multilateral organizations are effective ways to leverage our resources for the greatest good. No country, not even the United States, has the resources to do all things for all people. In these challenging times, individual governments must focus primarily on national and regional issues. The most cost effective way of being responsible stewards on universal issues is to respond jointly with the largest possible coalition of like-minded nations.
UN Reform
As the UN has evolved into its current large and complex system, it has suffered the same growing pains that many of our nations have suffered after periods of sustained growth. We believe that, in the rush to respond to emerging crises, the UN has understandably created a bewildering forest of overlapping institutions that are not always accountable to the Secretary General or as effective as they could be. As a result, the UN has had to endure a long list of embarrassing charges against its officials and peacekeepers. You have all probably read about the Oil for Food Program investigation. Recent charges of sexual misconduct among UN peacekeepers would be a second example.
The general sense that the UN needs to pause, reflect, and reorganize itself is generalized today, and are the reason why the Secretary General has recently launched a reform program. While no one who follows international relations could responsibly state that the UN has outlived its purpose, there is widespread consensus that the UN can do its job better. Both President Bush and Secretary Rice believe the United Nations is a vital forum for dealing with major threats to peace and security. I am pleased to say that the United States supports much of Secretary General Annan’s proposed reform agenda, including an expansion of the UN Security Council. In fact, we sent one of our toughest diplomats to New York, Ambassador John Bolton, to make sure that this job is done properly.
We were instrumental in creating the United Nations 61 years ago, proudly serve as the home of the United Nations headquarters, and remain committed to the UN’s future.
Conclusion
So, although you are only constituting four working committees in the Model United Nations, and thus restricting your attention to a limited number of agenda items, I believe you will go away from this event with an enhanced appreciation of the complexity of the world today and the delicacy of diplomacy. I certainly hope that, as a result of your work today and tomorrow, some of you will make diplomacy your career. It is a profession that needs a generational change. I am increasingly aware that, while my generation has ended the Cold War and sent IRA and ETA terrorists into civil society, we need to pass the mantle of leadership to a new generation that can apply new, more imaginative diplomacy to resolve some of the world’s more intractable problems. That means that you, with your idealism, your unfettered access to information, your new means of communication, and your global perspective, have a big job ahead of you. But I have heard you speak and met you in small numbers, and you have convinced me that you are up to the challenge. I expect you to begin the road to making the world a better place today and tomorrow in this Model United Nations. And then the sky is the limit. I only ask that, as you move out to make your mark on the world, that you do so together with the young people from my country. Two American teenagers live in my house, and I assure you that they are as desirous and capable as you are of fixing the world’s problems.
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