United States withdrawal from the United Nations

The United States of America has been a member-state of the United Nations

United Nations

The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...

since its inception as a supranational entity in 1945. Since the 1990s, amidst the high unpopularity of the UN within the United States, there has been a growing movement for United States withdrawal from the United Nations. Notable proponents, such as U.S. Representatives John Duncan of Tennessee

Tennessee

Tennessee is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States. It has a population of 6,346,105, making it the nation's 17th-largest state by population, and covers , making it the 36th-largest by total land area...

, Ron Paul

Ron Paul

Ronald Ernest "Ron" Paul is an American physician, author and United States Congressman who is seeking to be the Republican Party candidate in the 2012 presidential election. Paul represents Texas's 14th congressional district, which covers an area south and southwest of Houston that includes...

of Texas

Texas

Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...

, Terry Everett

Terry Everett

Robert Terry Everett is an American politician, who was a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives since 1993, representing ....

of Alabama

Alabama

Alabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its inland...

, and Samuel Johnson

Sam Johnson

Samuel Robert "Sam" Johnson is an American politician and a retired career U.S. Air Force officer and fighter pilot. He currently is a Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives from the 3rd District of Texas...

of Texas (all of whom co-sponsored or supported HR 1146 and HR 7) claim that the United Nations subverts American sovereignty

Sovereignty

Sovereignty is the quality of having supreme, independent authority over a geographic area, such as a territory. It can be found in a power to rule and make law that rests on a political fact for which no purely legal explanation can be provided...

.

Utah state legislator Don Bush, claims that many programs by the supranational entity have violated the Constitution, such as the implementation of the International Court of Justice

International Court of Justice

The International Court of Justice is the primary judicial organ of the United Nations. It is based in the Peace Palace in The Hague, Netherlands...

and the Law of the Sea Treaty, both of which the United States does not currently endorse.

History

Opposition to the United Nations

United Nations

and its predecessor, the League of Nations

League of Nations

The League of Nations was an intergovernmental organization founded as a result of the Paris Peace Conference that ended the First World War. It was the first permanent international organization whose principal mission was to maintain world peace...

, has existed from the time of formation. The John Birch Society

John Birch Society

The John Birch Society is an American political advocacy group that supports anti-communism, limited government, a Constitutional Republic and personal freedom. It has been described as radical right-wing....

, an anti-communist group founded in 1958, was opposed to US involvement from the society's beginning. From an early date they had bumper sticker

Bumper sticker

A bumper sticker is an adhesive label or sticker with a message, intended to be attached to the bumper of an automobile and to be read by the occupants of other vehicles - although they are often stuck onto other objects...

s with the slogan "Get the U.S. out of the U.N. and the U.N. out of the U.S.!" Another withdrawal advocate at the time was the National Review
National Review
National Review is a biweekly magazine founded by the late author William F. Buckley, Jr., in 1955 and based in New York City. It describes itself as "America's most widely read and influential magazine and web site for conservative news, commentary, and opinion."Although the print version of the...

, which once editorialized that the UN should be "liquidated".

Public opinion

According to the polling

Opinion poll

An opinion poll, sometimes simply referred to as a poll is a survey of public opinion from a particular sample. Opinion polls are usually designed to represent the opinions of a population by conducting a series of questions and then extrapolating generalities in ratio or within confidence...

organization Rasmussen Reports

Rasmussen Reports

Rasmussen Reports is an American media company that publishes and distributes information based on public opinion polling. Founded by pollster Scott Rasmussen in 2003, the company updates daily indexes including the President's job approval rating, and provides public opinion data, analysis, and...

, in the year 2004 a minority of 44% of United States Citizens had a favorable view of the United Nations. This number continued to decline steadily, and two years later in 2006 that number had fallen to 31%. As of 2006 slightly over a quarter (26% as of 2006) of Americans say "the U.S. should not be involved" with the United Nations, with a moderate majority of 57% still supporting remaining a member. (The 2006 poll was of 1000 adults.) A 2008 poll by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs shows that 39% find it "very important" and 21% "not important" to strengthen the U.N. Some ranking leaders of the United Nations have suggested that the United States government has been projecting a negative image of the UN, although this allegation is denied by the US.
Few observers expect the "U.S. out of U.N." (a pun

Pun

The pun, also called paronomasia, is a form of word play which suggests two or more meanings, by exploiting multiple meanings of words, or of similar-sounding words, for an intended humorous or rhetorical effect. These ambiguities can arise from the intentional use and abuse of homophonic,...

on the initials for the United States and the pronoun "us") movement to result in the US actually withdrawing for the foreseeable future.

Some controversy occurred in 1992 when US Army medic Michael New protested the United Nations by refusing to wear the UN insignia on his uniform during a peacekeeping mission to Macedonia. Michael New faced a court martial and was subsequently discharged for his disobedience to his commanding officer; to this day he still has the belief that he was correct to refuse service under the United Nations.

Legislation

Further information: American Sovereignty Restoration Act

In 1997 legislation H.R.1146 was introduced in the United States House of Representatives

United States House of Representatives

The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...

under the label "American Sovereignty Restoration Act". In addition to withdrawal, the bill also proposed expelling the United Nations Headquarters

United Nations headquarters

The headquarters of the United Nations is a complex in New York City. The complex has served as the official headquarters of the United Nations since its completion in 1952. It is located in the Turtle Bay neighborhood of Manhattan, on spacious grounds overlooking the East River...

from its territory within the City of New York and no longer providing the large plurality of funds which the US contributes to the UN annually.
The bill was met with minimal support. Further legislation has been suggested, although none has been organized in the form of a comprehensive bill. H.R.1146 has been introduced annually by the same congressmen since 1997, most recently in 2007. On January 19, 1995 another separate legislation labeled "The National Security Revitalization Act" was introduced by Congressman Don Bush
It was similar in form to bill H.R. 1146, although it had far more provisions such as a reaffirmation of the US support for NATO, and was therefore not exclusively a withdrawal bill. Representative Bush claimed "I had about 25 legislators that signed up for it and there was a lot of other support. The leadership in the House kept it from coming out on the floor."

Unilateralism

Unilateralism is any doctrine or agenda that supports one-sided action. Such action may be in disregard for other parties, or as an expression of a commitment toward a direction which other parties may find agreeable...

has had a long history in the United States. In his famous and influential Farewell Address, George Washington

George Washington

George Washington was the dominant military and political leader of the new United States of America from 1775 to 1799. He led the American victory over Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army from 1775 to 1783, and presided over the writing of...

, the first President of the United States

President of the United States

The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....

, warned that the United States should "steer clear of permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world". Many years later, this approach was labeled as isolationism

Isolationism

Isolationism is the policy or doctrine of isolating one's country from the affairs of other nations by declining to enter into alliances, foreign economic commitments, international agreements, etc., seeking to devote the entire efforts of one's country to its own advancement and remain at peace by...

, but some historians of American diplomacy have long argued that "isolationism" is a misnomer, and that American foreign policy, beginning with Washington, has traditionally been driven by unilateralism. Recent works that have made this argument include Walter A. McDougall's Promised Land, Crusader State (1997) and John Lewis Gaddis

John Lewis Gaddis

John Lewis Gaddis is a noted historian of the Cold War and grand strategy, who has been hailed as the "Dean of Cold War Historians" by The New York Times. He is the Robert A. Lovett Professor of Military and Naval History at Yale University. He is also the official biographer of the seminal 20th...

's Surprise, Security, and the American Experience (2004). Advocates of American unilateralism argue that other countries should not have "veto power" over matters of U.S. national security. Presidential Candidate John Kerry

John Kerry

John Forbes Kerry is the senior United States Senator from Massachusetts, the 10th most senior U.S. Senator and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He was the presidential nominee of the Democratic Party in the 2004 presidential election, but lost to former President George W...

received heavy political heat after saying, during a presidential debate, that American national security actions must pass a "global test". This was interpreted by Kerry opponents as a proposal to submit American foreign policy to approval by other countries. Proponents of American unilateralism generally believe that a multilateral institution, such as the United Nations, is morally suspect because, they argue, it treats non-democratic, and even despotic, regimes as being as legitimate as democratic countries, and withdrawing from the United Nations would be a symbolic move at further distancing the United States from foreign control.

Arguments for withdrawal

The relevance of the UN in the modern world is questioned by its critics, to which it is seen as nonproductive, morally and practically. This in part stems from a desire to ensure that sovereignty

Sovereignty

stays with national bodies, and not be yielded to any sort of extranational organization. Another possible reason for this dissent is its use as a negotiation tactic; by threatening to walk out, the US is voicing its displeasure and putting pressure on the UN to address US concerns and interests. Yet another motivation is dismay at the perceived failure of the UN to fulfill its goals in such areas as peacekeeping

Peacekeeping

Peacekeeping is an activity that aims to create the conditions for lasting peace. It is distinguished from both peacebuilding and peacemaking....

and human rights

Human rights

Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...

Arguments against withdrawal

Opponents of withdrawal cite that leaving the United Nations at this point in time would only serve to decrease the sphere of American influence and Pax Americana

Pax Americana

Pax Americana is an appellation applied to the historical concept of relative peace in the Western hemisphere and, later, the Western world, resulting from the preponderance of power enjoyed by the United States of America starting around the turn of the 20th century...

around the globe. They argue that the United Nations can be salvaged and reformed, and that leaving would cause more problems than it would solve. They often also argue that the purpose and power of the UN is frequently misunderstood, and that the subversion of sovereignty cited by critics does not actually exist, as the UN can only infringe on national sovereignty in limited circumstances that practically speaking can never be imposed on veto members of the Security Council

United Nations Security Council

The United Nations Security Council is one of the principal organs of the United Nations and is charged with the maintenance of international peace and security. Its powers, outlined in the United Nations Charter, include the establishment of peacekeeping operations, the establishment of...

such as the United States. Opponents also argue that a U.S. departure from the UN would exacerbate the influence of undemocratic regimes within the organization, thereby imperiling attempts to pressure the UN into adopting a more forceful and effective pro-human rights stance.

External links

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