Bismillah Al-Rahman Al-Raheem

Changes that the U.S.A has endeavoured to introduce to the U.N

One of the fundamental objectives of the United States, of which she has already achieved a great deal while on her way towards completing the rest of her objectives ever since she effectively participated in establishing the United Nations Organisation, was to destroy the role of Europe in running international politics and controlling the international situation, and to turn Europe into being part of the world policy, i.e. the "world including Europe" as oppose to "Europe and her foreign environment". America had realised since early days her potential powers and capabilities that would enable her to assume the role of the leading superpower in the world and she has hinted as her serious desire in leading the world since she took part in the First World War, then the Second World War, which revealed to her the extent of the weakness that had crept into the major European powers. Consequently, when she participated in the establishment of the United Nations, she duly acted like the dictator who was laying down the rules when the United Nations’ Charter was being drafted, not like a country who merely wished to become a permanent member. This is so because America was in origin the theoriser of the idea of an international organisation in the wake f the First World War. It was the American president Woodrow Wilson who drafted his celebrated 14 point declaration to be the cornerstone of the international organisation at that time. America was eager to fragment the European bloc in its quality as a bloc that controlled the course of international politics at the time. Europe did not fully respond to the American declaration and the United States did not join the League of Nations, which the European states had established; she rather left it to face destruction.
 
Around the end of the Second World War, America started through Truman a series of contacts and consultations with the aim of establishing a new international organisation to be known as the United Nations. Since the allies were eager in the wake of the Second World War to attract the United States to join the international organisation, especially after the phenomenal destruction they had suffered and after the emergence of the Soviet Union as a political force, these countries agreed to allow all the measures and the debates related to the United Nations Charter to take place in America and within earshot of the American people and institutions; for the Senate endorsed the charter of the United Nations by a majority of 89 votes with 2 against. Although the charter did not specify the location of the international organisation, it has however been built on American soil provided by Rockefeller with an interest free loan for the building costs.
 
While the founding member states were engrossed in putting the final touches to the clauses of the charter, which one of its articles stipulate the "maintaining world peace and security" and "preventing aggression and averting wars", America was streaming ahead in her secret nuclear programme, which she revealed to the world 41 days after the charter had been signed, when she bombed Hiroshima on 6 August 1945, thus declaring the end of the Second World War and heralding a new epoch in which she would be the leader and the decision maker.

Ever since the San Francisco Declaration, drafted with the Soviet Union and the National Republic of China (Taiwan), and based upon the Yalta Conference, which also includes the right of veto vested in the permanent member states, and which stipulates : "Due to the major responsibility shouldered by the permanent members, it would be impossible to expect of them in the current international circumstances to adhere to working in a dangerous domain such as the domain of maintaining peace and security.", the United States realised at the time the extent of the threat posed by the veto to her role in leading the United Nations and managing the international crisis despite the fact that she also had the right to veto. However, the problem as far as she was concerned was the traditional major powers together with the other superpower at the time, the Soviet Union, who also enjoyed the right to veto. Hence, America had endeavoured from the beginning to move from the concept of the "Balance of Power" which was an international reality led by Europe, to the concept of "Collective Security". In other words to move from the reality of the multiple major powers who deemed that they reserved the right to influence the international situation -in their quality as the victors-, to the reality of the institutions that protect the treaties and the guarantees between states, through the mechanism of making decisions in the General Assembly by a majority vote, with America maintaining her leading role.
 
The end of the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States in 1961 and the beginning of the policy of entente had a significant impact in the success of the American policy with regard to curbing Europe and her conventional major powers, by weakening their role at the Security Council and the United Nations; this contributed to a certain extent in alienating Europe from the international situation and international affairs.

The style pursued by the United States in order to achieve her objectives since that moment, and according to which she is still proceeding today - taking into consideration the changes that occurred in the international situation - is built upon the following basis:

1-Activating the role of the General Assembly of the United Nations:

This by allowing other states to join the international organisation so that the matter would not be solely confined to the founding and the permanent member states; also by removing the restrictions and conditions imposed upon prospective members, such as demanding the cancelling of mandates on colonies and demanding the independence and liberation of peoples. On the other hand, the United States endeavoured to refer the issues that the Security Council were unable to tackle to the General Assembly. This is what the U.S. Secretary of State did on 3 November 1950 when he submitted a resolution known as the Acheson Resolution under the title of "Unity for maintaining Peace". This was regarded as a detour from the Security Council and its permanent member states, for keeping the peace is its task. Hence, in the event of the Security Council failing to use the right to veto, the General Assembly could adopt the issue by calling for a meeting, even an emergency session, if the majority of the General Assembly members states or the majority of the Security Council members requested it. The adopted resolution would not be binding; it would rather be a recommendation that expresses the emotions of the majority and lend the "international legitimacy" to any voluntary action aimed at executing the recommendation. The best example of this is the American intervention in the Korean War in 1950 following a recommendation of the General Assembly. Also her challenge of the Soviet Union’s invasion of Hungary in 1956 and the trilateral aggression against Egypt in the same year.

This makes the role of the General Assembly conspicuous against the Security Council, i.e. against the conventional major powers. With the rise of America’s dominion, especially after the decline of the Soviet Union and then its disintegration, America succeeded in leading the world states and the permanent members in the Security Council and the General Assembly to launch her attack on Iraq in 1991 and she is assuming this leadership up until now, which denotes a confirmation of her successes and her exclusive leading role in the United Nations and the international situation, to the point where the conventional major powers, who are permanent members in the Security Council, have become no different from the other states.

2-Increasing the membership of the Security Council and endeavouring swiftly to abolish the right to veto and curb its effectiveness:

In 1952, the United States proposed the international organisation the abandoning of the right to veto, but the proposal was rejected. However, the United States did not stop at that, especially in the wake of the policy of entente with the Soviet Union, but she embarked upon utilising the veto as a deterrent against the other major powers, whether with regard to the issues of nuclear weapons and arms race or through the international conferences in which the major international issues were debated, such as the Middle-East issue, thus cancelling completely the role of the Security Council and curbing the major European countries and the right to veto.

As for the expansion of the Security Council, the United States succeeded in achieving this objective through the resolution issued by the General Assembly in 1963 to increase the number of members from 11 to 15; this was followed by an amendment to article 27 stipulating that the resolutions passed by the Security Council in executive matters would be binding if approved by 9 members. Furthermore, America endeavoured in the early seventies to expel the National Republic of China i.e. Formosa, from the membership of the Security Council and to grant the Popular Republic of China a permanent seat. She repeated the same action in the early nineties when she backed the granting of the former Soviet Union’s seat to Federal Russia.
 
In 1962, the General Assembly backed the request lodged by India with regard to increasing the membership of the Security Council; then in December 1963, the General Assembly decided to establish a working team with open membership to pursue all the aspects related to the issue of increasing the membership of the Security Council and all other matters, including the right to veto, so that the number of members reaches 22 with five of them enjoying permanent membership and representing Asia, Africa, Latin America and Europe, thus the number of permanent members becomes 10. Some countries have been nominated for these seats, such as India and Pakistan to represent Asia, Germany or Italy to represent Europe, Egypt to represent Africa and Argentina to represent Latin America. Then the General Assembly called for the gradual cancellation of the right to veto and for the matter to be reviewed in the next few years.

3-Activating the role of the Secretary General of the United Nations and scaling down the role of the Security Council:
 
This policy is pursued through the General Assembly and the various international agencies affiliated to the United Nations and through the participation and supervision of the general international issues, the peace keeping missions, the war crisis and the economic aid in the case of natural disasters and famines. This would raise the profile of the international organisation in its quality as a United Nations organisation and not just a bloc consisting of major powers who decide war and peace. It would also concentrate the concept of "Collective Security" and "Unity for Peace".

One of the most remarkable manoeuvres undertaken by the United States, after taking a major step towards shifting the international situation in her favour, was the General Assembly’s welcoming of the Central American states peace keeping initiative; this was when the General Assembly called upon the Secretary General to dispatch the "United Nations Monitoring Group" to Central America on 7 October 1987. The group started its work in 1989 and this was the first peace initiative undertaken by the United Nations in Central America since its establishment. This means that this initiative does not contradict the Monroe Doctrine and at the same time, it reveals the extent of the American influence over the international organisation. The matter did not stop at that, for the role and the profile of the Secretary General rose through the peace keeping forces that were sent to the Balkans in Europe and to the Middle-East, and also through his participation, in his quality as Secretary General of the international organisation, in the conferences organised by major powers, such as the Conference of the Francophone states held in Paris towards the end of last year (1998); also his attendance of the 19th Gulf Co-operation Council that was held in December 1998, in addition to his effective role in the recent Iraqi crisis and his mediation in the Lockerby issue. It is evident to the observers that by supervising many of the issues, the United States is aiming to steer the majority of states towards demanding the activation of the United Nations’ role and the role of its Secretary General, and this is what she is hoping to achieve.

These are the changes that the United States is endeavouring to introduce to the structure of the United Nations and to its role, so that she maintains it as an effective tool under her thumb and so that she undermines and terminates the role of the conventional major powers and force them to be contented with being part of the rest of the world. The United States is using the hot major issues, such as the Middle-East issue in Palestine and Iraq and the issues of the Balkans and Africa as a fundamental basis in achieving her objectives.

When the United States declared her New World Order, she did so in the wake of a major international crisis, similar to a World War in which the aspects of relationships, states and conventions are modified; that was the Iraqi crisis. It is known that the purport of the New World Order means the "international organisation" in its role and its structure; it denotes at the same time what the leading superpower aims at establishing in terms of relationships, conventions and terminology. It would not be surprising if America maintained a tight grip on the major issues and if she complicated then further, as is the case in Iraq and Kosovo, until her relationships and her conventions are established in the manner that she wants them, that is international dominion and control of world affairs. It is the United States who is steering countries such as Russia and France among others to call for the activation of the United Nations’ role and the activation of the Security Council’s role so that the changes she is aiming for become a fait accompli which others work towards achieving.

As for to what extent to the United States will succeed in achieving her objective, this depends on the size and the type of the issues, and on the state of stability or the lack of it witnessed in the international arena at this stage of the life of other states and nations. It also depends on her economic, military and technological ability in pursuing the issues and inciting them, in comparison with other countries who are too inferior to her.
 
The Media Forum of Hizb ut-Tahrir
 
8 Thil-Hijjah 1419
25 March 1999

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