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Title: Calling the Shots: How Washington Dominates Today's UN by Phyllis Bennis, Erskine Childers ISBN: 1-56656-353-4 Publisher: Interlink Pub Group Pub. Date: 15 July, 2000 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.25 (4 reviews)
Rating: 1
Summary: A sad pean to an organization not worthy of survival.
Comment: Bennis paints a picture of the U.N. that recreates the classic "Victimization" paradigm. Reading her book one is to believe that the U.S. has "swayed" and "cajolled" the U.N. into its lax standards of rule and "fuzzy" moral concepts. Sorry, not when the U.N. has steadily allowed corrupt governments of every ilk to hold sway in its councils. Not when the very fabric of the charter of the U.N. is ignored to allow governments hostile to peaceful and democratic rule to be part of the decision making process. Bennis neglects the history of "anti-american" and anti-democratic activities that have taken roost in the vaunted halls of the U.N. since the 70's in favor of making this an all America's fault diatribe. Nevermind the fact that Americans pay more than any other nation to support the U.N. Nevermind the fact that the U.N. members live better in the U.S. than they might in their own homelands. Were supposed to believe that the U.S. controls the U.N. when nations like Syria are allowed on the security council? When Tiawan is illegally voted of the concil in favor of Communist China. Sorry. Ayn Rand was more visionary in regards to the U.N. than Bennis, and at a time of when the U.N. is about to be investigated for corruption under the food for oil program, little Miss Bennis needs to stop making excuses and really explore this bastion of international law she reveres. Once done she will see that Washington has very little to do with the politics of how the U.N. is run and how the Secretary General can either make or brake the power structure within. Answer this Miss Bennis. If the U.s. manipulates the U.N. so well then how is it that the agency never listens to the U.S.? Out of all the wars the U.N. has never stopped a single one and I doubt that is the U.S.' fault and I am happy the world is not ignoring the U.N.s' failures, we need to stop allowing this organization full of false alliances to speak for those truely dedicated to peace. Down with the "peacekeepers" who rape and steal from those they are to protect. Down with the support of terrorist nations within its councils for money. And to hell with the waste this organization dumps on civilized nations when it looses control of its unstable politics.
Rating: 4
Summary: The United States of Nations - Washington's hold on the UN
Comment: The Cold War ended more than a decade ago, crowning the US as the world's sole superpower. Nowhere is this raw reality more apparent than at the United Nations, dominated by a single country since the decline and fall of the Soviet Union.
Who call the shots at the UN? And how is it done? Phyllis Bennis has written a readable, gripping and masterful, if ultimately flawed account of the world body's domination by the US.
Carefully tracing how American power dressed as principle strategically hobbled the UN from its inception, she reveals concrete instances of how the US coerces or subdues countries into toeing its line, and how it quashes dissent.
Whether she is examining US manipulation of the UN Security Council to secure multilateral cover for conducting a unilateral campaign against Iraq, or its conscious policy of apathy in the Security Council in the face of the Rwanda genocide, Bennis is excellent at teasing out US double-standards and hypocrisy. However, her judgements are perhaps too broad and sweeping, failing to take into account the realities of power. No country operates on assumptions of altruism. Any freshman realist will tell you this is the way the world works, has worked, and will always work. Can any country afford to suspend its national interest for the sake of fuzzy moral principles, even if these principles lie at the heart of international law, the UN Charter? Bennis believes that the US has a moral duty to do so, and must provide responsible and enlightened leadership to revitalise the UN. In unveiling the contradictions, ambiguities and doublespeak in US policy at the UN, Bennis compels the reader to confront a hard question: can the US get away with mobilising the world's most important international organisation for its own interests? Is it answerable to no-one but itself?
Embedded in her book is a lesson in ethics - calling the shots entails responsibility and accountability. But any freshman ethical philosopher may tell you that. Some readers may expect such a lucid, well-written account of US domination at the UN to deliver more, instead of serving as a jeremiad on unbridled US power.
In concluding her book, what appears to pique Bennis most is what she terms the "self-righteous know it all ism" of US officials and politicians. Here one feels that Bennis has taken it all a bit too personally, and the book loses its punch. Arrogance and pride is a prerogative of unchallenged supremacy. Can we draw any hard lessons from such an attitude? Can we construct a programme for change from what Bennis herself admits has been the agenda of the US and its allies all along - strategically hobbling the UN to serve its interests? In the final analysis, realists may conclude that Bennis has paradoxically legitimated the crude prerogatives of raw power, while idealists may declare that by unveiling, naming and shaming, she has contributed some hard punches in a crucial international debate on reforming the US attitude towards the UN.
But can power be shamed or reconstructed by disclosure? Here Bennis harbours the hope of the investigative journalist, except her scoop is well-known and widely-accepted. It may have been better if Bennis had provided stronger arguments on how US hubris and hamartia leads to unfavourable outcomes, and how its tyranny of consensus at the UN could have unforeseen blowback for the world. That could have provided a more solid argument to convince the unenlightened majority of US public opinion that a strong UN can and will help protect US, and by extension, global interests. And that's why I give the book 4 stars and not 5, along with the fact that it contains too many glaring typos, which subtract from the hard effort and deep research that went into crafting its explosive content.
Rating: 4
Summary: A compelling expose on Washington's control over the UN
Comment: The Cold War ended more than a decade ago, crowning the US as the world's sole superpower. Nowhere is this raw reality more apparent than at the United Nations, dominated by a single country since the decline and fall of the Soviet Union.
Who call the shots at the UN? And how is it done? Phyllis Bennis has written a readable, gripping and masterful, if ultimately flawed account of the world body's domination by the US.
Carefully tracing how American power dressed as principle strategically hobbled the UN from its inception, she reveals concrete instances of how the US coerces or subdues countries into toeing its line, and how it quashes dissent.
Whether she is examining US manipulation of the UN Security Council to secure multilateral cover for conducting a unilateral campaign against Iraq, or its conscious policy of apathy in the Security Council in the face of the Rwanda genocide, Bennis is excellent at teasing out US double-standards and hypocrisy. However, her judgements are perhaps too broad and sweeping, failing to take into account the realities of power. No country operates on assumptions of altruism. Any freshman realist will tell you this is the way the world works, has worked, and will always work. Can any country afford to suspend its national interest for the sake of fuzzy moral principles, even if these principles lie at the heart of international law, the UN Charter? Bennis believes that the US has a moral duty to do so, and must provide responsible and enlightened leadership to revitalise the UN. In unveiling the contradictions, ambiguities and doublespeak in US policy at the UN, Bennis compels the reader to confront a hard question: can the US get away with mobilising the world's most important international organisation for its own interests? Is it answerable to no-one but itself?
Embedded in her book is a lesson in ethics - calling the shots entails responsibility and accountability. But any freshman ethical philosopher may tell you that. Some readers may expect such a lucid, well-written account of US domination at the UN to deliver more, instead of serving as a jeremiad on unbridled US power.
In concluding her book, what appears to pique Bennis most is what she terms the "self-righteous know it all ism" of US officials and politicians. Here one feels that Bennis has taken it all a bit too personally, and the book loses its punch. Arrogance and pride is a prerogative of unchallenged supremacy. Can we draw any hard lessons from such an attitude? Can we construct a programme for change from what Bennis herself admits has been the agenda of the US and its allies all along - strategically hobbling the UN to serve its interests? In the final analysis, realists may conclude that Bennis has paradoxically legitimated the crude prerogatives of raw power, while idealists may declare that by unveiling, naming and shaming, she has contributed some hard punches in a crucial international debate on reforming the US attitude towards the UN.
But can power be shamed or reconstructed by disclosure? Here Bennis harbours the hope of the investigative journalist, except her scoop is well-known and widely-accepted. It may have been better if Bennis had provided stronger arguments on how US hubris and hamartia leads to unfavourable outcomes, and how its tyranny of consensus at the UN could have unforeseen blowback for the world. That could have provided a more solid argument to convince the unenlightened majority of US public opinion that a strong UN can and will help protect US, and by extension, global interests. And that's why I give the book 4 stars and not 5, along with the fact that it contains too many glaring typos, which subtract from the hard effort and deep research that went into crafting its explosive content.
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