The Security Council does D.C.

The United States holds the presidency of the UN Security Council this month, and that creates opportunities for U.S. officials to try to sensitize Security Council members to the intricacies of the U.S. foreign-policy process (although Wikileaks may have reduced the need for that). More importantly, it offers a chance to smooth the rough relations ...

By , a professor at Indiana University’s Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies.

The United States holds the presidency of the UN Security Council this month, and that creates opportunities for U.S. officials to try to sensitize Security Council members to the intricacies of the U.S. foreign-policy process (although Wikileaks may have reduced the need for that). More importantly, it offers a chance to smooth the rough relations that have often existed between appropriators in Congress and the United Nations. 

The United States holds the presidency of the UN Security Council this month, and that creates opportunities for U.S. officials to try to sensitize Security Council members to the intricacies of the U.S. foreign-policy process (although Wikileaks may have reduced the need for that). More importantly, it offers a chance to smooth the rough relations that have often existed between appropriators in Congress and the United Nations. 

Today, Susan Rice has been shepherding her fellow ambassadors from the UN Security Council through a series of meetings on Capitol Hill and at the White House. Administration officials tell me that the Council ambassadors met with Chairman Howard Berman (D-CA), Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX), Congressman Eni Faleomavaega (D- American Samoa), and Congressman Donald Payne (D-NJ). I’m told that key House GOP members, including Congresswoman Ros-Lehtinen were invited, but not able to attend because of scheduling conflicts.

A meeting on the Senate side included Chairman Kerry, Senator Bob Corker (R-TN), Senator Roger Wicker (R-MS), Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL), and Senator Johnny Isakson (R-GA). The ambassadors and the legislators apparently discussed UN management reform and Sudan, among other topics.

The Security Council then headed to a Blair House lunch with Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg before meetings at the White House. They should be meeting shortly with the president, and he is expected to issue a statement.

David Bosco is a professor at Indiana University’s Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies. He is the author of The Poseidon Project: The Struggle to Govern the World’s Oceans. Twitter: @multilateralist

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