by Henry Lamb
October 4, 2004
The UN is in a crisis of relevance. In a desperate effort to prevent the collapse of the international institution, Kofi annan appointed a 16-member "High Level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change" last November. The report is expected in December. UN observers are eagerly awaiting the panel's recommendations about two areas of critical concern to the United States.
The panel is expected to recommend the criteria to legitimize pre-emptive unilateral action, and to recommend major changes in the structure of the UN Security Council.
Kofi annan has already declared the U.S. invasion of Iraq to be "illegal." Panel member Gareth Evans, a former foreign minister of australia, told an audience at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars:
"a central reason for our appointment was concern that the UN, and indeed the whole multilateral security system, was really at a crossroads with the resurgence of unilateralism from you know whom, and increasing willingness to bypass the Security Council."
When George Bush slammed shut the window of diplomacy, after the UN Security Council refused to make good on its threats against Iraq, issued through 17 resolutions over 12 years, the crisis of relevance at the UN became obvious to the world. annan's High Level Panel is expected to draft the rules of engagement which will prevent, or at least provide the basis for international condemnation of unilateral action in the future.
The reason for the UN Security Council's inaction is now coming into focus. The unfolding Oil for Food scandal implicates both UN officials, and officials in the governments of those nations that refused to act. Benon Sevan, once the executive director of the program, was among hundreds of people who received oil vouchers and bribes from Hussein. as late as May, 2002,