A new publication from The Heritage Foundation

CONUNDRUM

The Limits of the United Nations and the Search for Alternatives



Edited by Brett D. Schaefer



Foreword by Ambassador John R. Bolton



September 2009 – 400 pages – ISBN 1-4422-0006-7 – Cover Price: $34.95














Although rooted in noble aims, the United Nations has a long history of failing to fulfill the purposes for which it was created – bolstering international peace and security, promoting fundamental human rights and freedoms, and increasing prosperity and living standards. Nevertheless, the UN has managed to increase its budgets and expand its mandate and activities into areas in which it has little expertise or expectation of success.



Billions of U.S. tax dollars are invested in the UN each year, yet U.S. efforts to improve the effectiveness of the organization have little effect. This groundbreaking book offers thoughtful analyses of the UN system’s many weaknesses and failings and practical steps for reform to improve its role in major areas, from peace and security to human rights, development, global health, and a sustainable environment. The contributors also discuss ways to work around the UN if that is the best option.


















The United States has a large foreign policy tool box. The UN is just one implement. But there are times the UN can be very useful. Therefore, the serious discussion of the UN’s mischief and promise in ConUNdrum is worthwhile reading for foreign policy scholars and practitioners. It contains many hard earned insights and ideas for reform.



– Richard S. Williamson, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations for Special Political Affairs

in 2002 and U.S. Special Envoy to Sudan in 2008



“Multilateralism” is the buzzword of the Obama Administration’s foreign policy. In this wide-ranging collection of essays, America’s leading experts on multilateralism – John Bolton, David Rivkin, and Kim Holmes among them – explain the uses and, more often, misuses of multilateralism as a tool of American statecraft. Invaluable.



– Bret Stephens, Foreign Affairs Columnist, The Wall Street Journal





Purchase online at Amazon.com



or through the publisher at www.rowman.com/isbn/1442200065