United Nations's Social Agenda Nov. 17

Bellwrite #34: Should the United States continue to support the United Nations?

During class, students took a quiz on the United Nations:

1. Where is the United Nations' headquarters located and why is that significant?
2. When was the UN created?
3. What is the General Assembly?
4. What is the purpose of the Security Council?
5. What nations are the five permanent members of the Security Council (and why them?)?
6. What is the purpose of the International Court of Justice?
7. How is the UN funded? (Why does that matter?)
8. What are the four stated purposes of the United Nations in the Preamble to the UN Charter?
9. Explain three of the reasons opponents of the UN feel it creates a threat of a one world government?
10. Define sovereignty.
11. What does the Michael Brown case demonstrate about how the UN might be considered a threat to national sovereignty.
12. Rate your reading/annotating of the UN articles on a scale of 1-5.

 
We discussed why federalism would be celebrated within the United States (sharing sovereignty between state and the national governments) but feared when it comes to the United Nations (sharing sovereignty between national and the international/supranational governments).

I explained why some people fear the UN might create a world currency. If I had $100 in my bank account and the United States printed double the currency that had been in circulation, then the value of my $100 would drop to nearly half. The government has then taken the value of my money and redistributed it by spending it on social programs. Some say this is a form of socialism. Consider what might happen if this type of power were given to the UN, critics point out.

Next, we looked at a case study in the social agenda of the United Nations: the Convention on  the Rights of the Child (CRC) which is the guiding philosophy of UNICEF (the UN's sub-organization that works to care for children). We considered several of the rights declared by the CRC, both their merits and their potential dangers.

Students suggested that there are alternatives to the UN. Private organizations, some argued, could fulfill most of the social agenda of the UN without the danger of turning sovereign power over to a supranational government. Other students said that individual nations could and should do the things the UN undertakes. (However, some students pointed out that when individual nations negotiate for themselves, it tends to result in war.) Other students argued that the UN should exist, but only as a forum for leaders of nations to come together; it should not have any binding power at all. Other students argued the UN should exist to sanction international police actions but not to promote a social agenda. Clearly, there are a range of possible responses to the UN.

Homework:
Write 2-3 paragraphs responding to this prompt. Please type your response.

Should the United Nations exist? If so, what roles should it and should it NOT fulfill? If not, propose an alternative that will fulfill the stated purposes of the United Nations:
1) Preventing world war
2) Ensuring human rights
3) Upholding international treaties
4) Promoting social progress