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Sunday, April 10, 2005

John Bolton as UN ambassador?

On Monday, April 11, the Foreign Relations Committee, led by Senator Richard Lugar, begins hearings into the nomination of John Bolton for UN ambassador. Bolton's controversial nomination has been opposed by 67 former U.S. diplomats, State Department officials or officials of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency who recently signed a letter urging senators to reject the nomination.

Bolton, virulently opposed to international treaties and organizations such as the UN, has said that "If the UN secretary building in New York lost 10 stories, it wouldn't make a bit of difference" (1994 Global Structures Convocation, NY).

As the diplomats against the Bolton nomination write in their letter, "John Bolton's insistence that the UN is valuable only when it directly serves the United States, and that the most effective Security Council would be one where the U.S. is the only permanent member, will not help him to negotiate with representatives of the remaining 96% of humanity at a time when the UN is actively considering enlargement of the Security Council and steps to deal more effectively with failed states and to enhance the UN's peacekeeping capability."

The nomination could be blocked by the Foreign Relations Committee if Senator Lincoln Chafee, a moderate Republican from Rhode Island, joins the eight Democrats on the committee to vote against Bolton.

"At a time when the UN is struggling to get an adequate grip on the genocidal killing in Darfur, Sudan, Mr. Bolton's skepticism about UN peacekeeping, about paying the UN dues that fund peacekeeping, and his leadership of the opposition to the International Criminal Court, originally proposed by the U.S. itself in order to prosecute human rights offenders, will all make it difficult for the U.S. to play an effective leadership role at a time when the UN itself and many member states are moving to improve UN capacity to deal with international problems," stated the diplomats against Bolton.

Links:

• www.DiplomatsAgainstBolton.com
• www.StopBolton.org
• "Bush's Choice for UN Faces Bullying Claims," by David Usborne (The Independent, 9 April 2005)
• "The Worst of the Bad Nominees" (New York Times, 8 April 2005)
• "Ten Questions the Senate Should Ask John Bolton at his Confirmation Hearing, But Probably Won't," by Phyllis Bennis (Institute for Policy Studies, 9 March 2005)
• "Bush Slaps International Community With Bolton Nomination" (Americans for Democratic Action, 9 March 2005)

- Adam