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Interview: UN needs money to meet growing demand as global protector: S.Korean expert

Xinhua, September 24, 2015 Adjust font size:

The United Nations, born after the end of World War II for the sake of international peace, needs more money to meet growing demand for the organization serving as a global protector, or a solver of pan-global issues, a South Korean expert said.

Since the ideological confrontation came to an end, the UN had succeeded in solving humanitarian issues "to some extent," Cho Han- seung, professor of political science at Dankook University, said in an interview with Xinhua on Wednesday.

Foundations were solidified for UN intermediation thanks to the concept of "Responsibility to Protect (R2P)," which UN Secretary- General Ban Ki-moon sought to speed up discussions about since his inauguration in January 2007.

The universalized concept, which was first raised in 2001 and adopted by the UN in 2005 with the confinement to genocide, ethnic cleansing, war crimes and crimes against humanity, enabled regional organizations as well as the UN to offer more humanitarian aids.

Demand for the UN as a solver of pan-global issues became, and will become, stronger amid the emerging global issues such as environment and energy that cannot be resolved by an individual country but affect many nations, the professor noted.

"Amid growing issues in need of an international cooperation, the UN can be used as an appropriate tool, but the UN has no proper power to afford them. Such power comes from its funding capability," Cho said.

The organization has been troubled with financial crunch as key UN members delayed, or rejected, their payment of contributions for the UN budgets composed of general and peacekeeping operations (PKO) budgets. Members make a financial contribution in accordance with economic scale "theoretically."

According to a book titled "United Nations and World Peace" co- authored by Cho, the U.S. contribution in arrears accounted for 79 percent of the total in terms of the UN general budget in 2011 alone. The amount in arrears for Japan was 799 million U.S. dollars in terms of the Peacekeeping Operations Expenditures (PKO) budget, almost doubling the U.S. arrears.

Since the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, which the UN opposed, relations between the organization and its biggest contributor became strained. The Bush administration was criticized by the UN at that time, and the United States reduced its contribution. Many other members followed the U.S. suit, according to Cho.

The Reagan administration even took its name off the UNESCO membership list as it might believe that there was nothing to gain from the membership. Uneven contributions have been made by UN member states according to relations with the organization or national interests, the professor noted.

As revenue fell, the UN began to scale down expenditures, unnecessary and even necessary ones, Cho concluded. Endi