An UNMUTED x Network 20/20 Debate: Leave the UN?
DOORS OPEN AT 6:30, SHOW STARTS AT 7
Forty billion dollars a year. That's roughly what the world pours into the United Nations, and the United States writes the single biggest check. But the checks keep clearing while the Human Rights Council seats human-rights abusers, peacekeeping missions stall, and "reform" stays a word everyone says and no one delivers. So Washington has a lever it's increasingly tempted to pull: stop paying. Withhold the dues until the place changes.
The only question is whether that's leverage or vandalism: the one tool that finally forces reform, or the surest way to hand the building to Beijing and blow up the one forum where everyone still has to show up.
So: should the United States leave UN, or is that a threat we'll regret making?
Arguing for, Taufiq Rauhim is a senior fellow at New America and about has extensive experience in foreign policy. He has read the budget line by line... and thinks most of it isn't buying us much.
Arguing against, Ambassador Chris Lu did the job for real. Sworn in as US Representative to the United Nations for Management and Reform, he spent three years leading the American negotiations on the UN budget and grinding out reform from the inside of the Fifth Committee. Also sat in class next to a guy named Barack Obama. He knows exactly what the money buys, and what happens when you stop paying.
Moderated by Rekha Shanmugam of Al Jazeera, an MC Eliana Kwartler.
UNMUTED is the place where talking points go to die. Talk politics. Keep your friends. Make new ones.