Congress prepares to tackle the United Nations

The now Republican-controlled House Foreign Affairs Committee has turned its eyes to the United Nations. And they’ve recruited some notable UN-skeptics to help them understand the place. Next week’s hearing will feature muckracking journalist Claudia Rosett, who regularly pillories the organization in the Wall Street Journal and at her blog, Brett Schaefer from the Heritage ...

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

The now Republican-controlled House Foreign Affairs Committee has turned its eyes to the United Nations. And they've recruited some notable UN-skeptics to help them understand the place. Next week's hearing will feature muckracking journalist Claudia Rosett, who regularly pillories the organization in the Wall Street Journal and at her blog, Brett Schaefer from the Heritage Foundation, and Robert Appleton, who helped investigate the oil-for-food scandal.

The now Republican-controlled House Foreign Affairs Committee has turned its eyes to the United Nations. And they’ve recruited some notable UN-skeptics to help them understand the place. Next week’s hearing will feature muckracking journalist Claudia Rosett, who regularly pillories the organization in the Wall Street Journal and at her blog, Brett Schaefer from the Heritage Foundation, and Robert Appleton, who helped investigate the oil-for-food scandal.

The initial hearing lineup had no voices that could be considered friendly to the organization. Since then, it’s my understanding that the committee’s minority staff have invited Peter Yeo of the UN Foundation and former UN official Mark Quarterman (now of the Center for Strategic and International Studies). The hearing is set to feature some very disparate views of the United Nations and its utility, and it’s just a taste of the kind of pressure the administration may face on the UN reform front in the months to come.

One U.S. official tells me that the administration is eager to have a conversation with the Congress about the important work they’ve done on reforming the UN. My guess is that whatever they think they’ve done, it won’t be enough. And the administration is sure to get grief for its participation in the UN Human Rights Council. Schaefer, in particular, has called the Council’s work "farcical" and the decision to join it "wrongheaded."

The changed landscape on Capitol Hill also makes the open question of whether the UN Security Council will pass a resolution on Israeli settlements particularly pressing. A long list of foreign policy notables recently urged the administration to support the resolution;  a Machiavellian Obama adviser with an eye on Capitol Hill might recommend having the current draft resolution come to a vote and then vetoing it as a kind of offering to the new Foreign Affairs Committee.

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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