20th February 2000

Who's in charge of US foreign policy?

Although a US withdrawal is unlikely even under a worst case scenario the threat was an indication of the political power wielded by the right wing Republican majority in a US Congress battling an administration run by a Democratic President.

After the Helms pronouncement, diplomats at the UN began to wonder: who is in charge of US foreign policy? Is it Helms or Bill Clinton?

And has the US President's powers been hijacked by ultra conservative legislators like Helms? A Republican from the state of North Carolina and an unrelenting critic of the UN, Helms has long called for "our country's departure from this Organisation, and vice versa." Last year the Republican majority in Congress laid down more than 20 conditions which the UN has to adhere to, including the scrutiny of its budget by the US General Accounting Office, if it is to receive more than $1.3 billion in US arrears to the world body.

"If the UN were to reject this compromise" (read: conditionalities), Helms told delegates last month, "it would mark the beginning of the end of US support for the United Nations."

After four days of silence and strong criticism of the Clinton Administration for keeping its lips sealed Secretary of State Madeleine Albright decided to set the record straight.

"Let me be clear," Albright said, "Only the President and the executive branch can speak for the United States." "On behalf of the President, let me say that the Clinton Administration and I believe that most Americans see our role in the world and our leadership to this Organisation quite differently than does Senator Helms," she said.

Albright also pointed out that the US "strongly supports" the UN charter and the Organisation's purpose.

"We respect its rules, which we helped to write. We want to strengthen it through continued reform, and we recognise its many contributions to our own interest in a more secure, democratic and humane world," she added.

Although the Clinton Administration is not likely to dilute its support for the UN, it will continue to be thwarted by Republicans who mistakenly think the UN is a world government that threatens America's sovereignty. Surprisingly, the views expressed by Helms on the issue of sovereignty interacts with those of developing nations: the UN must respect national sovereignty at all costs. But Helms has conveniently tailored it to suit his own political agenda. Slobodan Milosevic, he said, cannot claim sovereignty over Kosovo when he murdered Kosovars and piled their bodies into mass graves. "Neither can Fidel Castro claim that it is his sovereign right to oppress his people. Nor can Saddam Hussein defend his oppression of the Iraqi people behind phony claims of sovereignty," he added. But yet he opposes the creation of an International Criminal Court because it would have powers that could curtail US sovereignty.

At the same time, he has also condemned the Yugoslav War Crimes Tribunal for seeking to prosecute NATO commanders, including US Generals, for war crimes during the Kosovo air attacks. Meanwhile, Senator John Warner, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee and a Republican from Virginia, told UN officials that US politicians don't have to cozy up to the UN to win American elections.

"No one in the history of the (US) Senate ever got elected on supporting the United Nations," he added.

But still in every single public opinion poll conducted in the US, Americans have expressed strong political support for the UN and have also been critical of the US for not paying its dues to the world body.

However, when he addressed the Security Council last month, Helms admitted that public opinion polls have always favoured US backing for the UN. But he warned the UN not to place too much confidence on those polls. "Since I was first elected to the Senate in 1972, I have run for re-election four times," he said. "Each time, the pollsters confidently predicted my defeat. Each time, I am happy to confide, they have been wrong." I am pleased that, thus far, I have never won a poll or lost an election," he added.