What will Donald Trump鈥檚 relationship with the UN look like?
President-elect Donald Trump isn鈥檛 happy that the United Nations doesn鈥檛 live up to its 鈥済reat potential.鈥�
In a tweet Monday, noting that the global organization has 鈥渟uch great potential,鈥� the billionaire businessman referred to the UN as "just a club for people to get together, talk and have a good time. So sad!"
The comments came just days after the UN voted to condemn Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Mr. Trump had put pressure on President Obama to oppose the vote and vocally criticized the move, marking his first real foray into international proceedings as a political leader.
"As to the U.N., things will be different after Jan. 20th," he tweeted on Friday, after the Security Council allowed the resolution to pass. 聽
Trump鈥檚 unexpected victory left many around the world reeling, but those in the UN weren鈥檛 quite sure how to react, as the president-elect hadn鈥檛 directed his brazen rhetoric and often harsh criticism toward the organization on the campaign trail. Others have decried the bureaucracy behind the UN as a burden on operations before, sometimes leading to tense relationships between administrations and the 193-nation organization, but facilitating reform throughout the expanding bureaucracy hasn鈥檛 proven an easy task.
As for Trump鈥檚 administration, details of the future relationship with the UN remain cloudy. He has appointed South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley to serve as ambassador to the UN, and her lack of international experience and opposition to both the Iran deal and settlement of refugees in her state She was a vocal critic of the president-elect's campaign promise to place a temporary ban on Muslim immigrants, calling the policy proposal 鈥渦n-American,鈥� which places her more in line with mainstream opinions in the organization.
Some worry that Trump鈥檚 own campaign trail promises could clash with key UN principles and resolutions that many view as great global compromises. He has referred to climate change as a hoax and threatened to withdraw the US from the Paris Agreement while also vowing to bar refugees and immigrants from countries with high rates of terrorism, a policy that could violate international law.
Still, there鈥檚 an opportunity for the Trump administration to make deals and international agreements that could sway the global conversation further in the United States's favor, and cooperating with the organization鈥檚 leaders rather than denouncing them could work in his favor.
鈥淗别 ,鈥� Sarah Cliffe, a former UN assistant secretary general who is now director of the Center on International Cooperation, a research organization at New York University, told The New York Times last month. 鈥淭he U.N. is the forum where countries make deals in their own national interests but that also does some collective good.鈥�
Despite its inherent flaws brought on by underlying organizational complexities, 2016 was a time of progress for the global organization.
The UN鈥檚 Security Council, of which the US is a permanent member, approved some 70 resolutions, such as sanctions on North Korea and others that boosted global peacekeeping operations. The General Assembly concurrently worked to approve dozens of resolutions, condemning human rights violations in Iran and North Korea and authorizing an investigation into war crimes in Syria.
Trump is far from the first leader to criticize the organization; John R. Bolton, the George W. Bush administration鈥檚 ambassador to the UN, once said the organization would be more effective if it got rid of its top 10 floors, where the senior leaders work. The president-elect briefly considered Mr. Bolton for secretary of state.
But the billionaire businessman hasn鈥檛 always been a critic of the UN. In 2005, he spoke at a Senate hearing, saying that 鈥渢he concept of the United Nations and the fact that the United Nations is in New York is very important to me and very important to the world as far as I am concerned.鈥�
As a businessman, Trump offered to renovate the UN building in New York, saying he would only charge half price for costs. But it鈥檚 unclear if he could play any role in reforming the inner workings of the organization.
鈥淭here is no single institution that I found more exhilarating at its best, at its worst, than the United Nations,鈥� Gareth Evans, a former foreign minister of Australia previously told The Guardian. He said his efforts to reform the organization 鈥渨ere about as quixotic and unproductive as anything I have ever tried to do.鈥�
This report contains material from the Associated Press.
