This morning, Presidential Special Envoy to Sudan Andrew Natsios and Under-Secretary General for Peacekeeping Operations Jean-Marie Guehenno spoke at a Brookings Institution forum on the next steps for Darfur. Their remarks come at a critical time. Late last week, the Sudanese government and representatives of major international actors including the United Nations, the African Union, China, and the United States met in Addis Ababa to discuss the possibility of a hybrid UN-AU force for Darfur.
On Sunday, the world's top humanitarian official met one of the world's worst war criminals in a remote jungle outpost on the Congo-Sudan border. Jan Egeland, the UN Undersecretary General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator met Joseph Kony, leader of the brutal Lord's Resistance Army, in the depths of the jungle in an effort to promote peace in the devastated region.
At various times, blogs like Atlas Shrugs and Michelle Malkin hurl sundry invectives at the UN and its Secretary General for allegedly coddling terrorists in Lebanon. Invariably, these criticisms are always more bluster than fact-based, so I am hardly surprised that these two have been silent on a recent positive development in Lebanon.
My french may be a bit rusty, but I can't help but think that the outrage in this Martin Peretz post is a bit misplaced. At issue is a Ban Ki-moon interview in Le Monde in which Mr Ban says (roughly) that the United Nations should be more responsive to the needs of its member states.
Any casual UN observer knows that this is a wholly uncontroversial statement. It is perhaps the equivalent of a new football coach saying he looks forward to working with his players.
As Congress prepares to switch majority parties in January, it may be useful to think about how this shift could affect US-UN relations. Initially, perhaps the most identifiable consequence of the election may be that it delivered a death knell to Congressional threats to force United Nations reform by withholding UN dues.
Despite its proximity to American shores, the conflict and UN peacekeeping operation in Haiti receives little media attention in the American press. Seldom is the question asked: "Could the United States be doing more in Haiti?"
After over forty rounds of voting, neither Guatemala nor Venezuela will join the Security Council. Rather, Latin American member states have nominated Panama as a compromise candidate.