How does the UN benefit US?

[chloe]

What purpose does the UN serve besides extortion and manipulating a countries public image & reputation?

[Jeff]

What purpose does the UN serve besides extortion and manipulating a countries public image & reputation?

None ??


And Chloe I am always nice :cool:

[Mr. P]

What purpose does the UN serve besides extortion and manipulating a countries public image & reputation?
The headquarters being in NYC provides a wealth of easily obtained intell for our spy guys in one central location.

Other than that none.

[CSM]

It helps us redistribute our wealth! You do want to redistribute our wealth don't you?

[chloe]

It helps us redistribute our wealth! You do want to redistribute our wealth don't you?


No I don't. unless of course other countries are paying us back for all the Military Protection we gave over the years! I think we have outgrown the need of the UN and we should quit that club and go on our own.

[chloe]

None ??


And Chloe I am always nice :cool:

Yes you are always nice.

[chloe]

The headquarters being in NYC provides a wealth of easily obtained intell for our spy guys in one central location.

Other than that none.

So basically we don't need to pay dues anymore or belong to that popularity club, besides they never save our reputation anyway they always act like were so bad, and we do what we want anyway. Lets break up with them save our dues.

[CSM]

No I don't. unless of course other countries are paying us back for all the Military Protection we gave over the years! I think we have outgrown the need of the UN and we should quit that club and go on our own.

I guess the sarcasm wasn't apparent!

[chloe]

I guess the sarcasm wasn't apparent!

It was, I just added to it:rolleyes:

[fj1200]

What purpose does the UN serve besides extortion and manipulating a countries public image & reputation?

Because they give us the diplomatic and military backing necessary when it's imperative that we enforce UN resolutions.

Oh wait...

[chloe]

Dear UN

It's just not working out for me, I work hard I provide protection and when I come home to you all I get are complaints about what I am not doing right and then you want my money....listen baby I gots to break up wit you, I declare my Independance thats how it gotta be

:salute:

[abso]

What purpose does the UN serve besides extortion and manipulating a countries public image & reputation?

Article:
Focus on the UN: behind-the-scenes benefits to Americans - various UN agencies and their services (http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1584/is_n35_v6/ai_17509917/)

Parts:

Security and Safely
UN organizations concerned with nuclear energy, illegal narcotics, and transportation--to name a few--are essential to ensuring the security and safety of Americans at home and abroad. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) promotes multilateral efforts to enhance radiation protection and nuclear safety, and helps nations develop peaceful uses for nuclear power. IAEA technical assistance and cooperation programs support U.S. nonproliferation goals by bringing the benefits of nuclear techniques in electrical power, medicine, agriculture, and science to countries which support the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and IAEA safeguards.

Health
Global environmental and health threats to Americans are reduced through U.S. participation in UN programs. Through its work with UN agencies to protect the global climate, the U.S. has helped establish international standards that will reduce skin cancers, slow the spread of deserts, and increase the amount of arable land to feed a growing world population.

Communication
UN system organizations underpin key parts of the global communications network. Membership in the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) provides a forum to allocate worldwide radio frequencies and to coordinate orbits for communication satellites. The ITU also plays a key role in setting communications standards. Participation by the U.S. telecommunication industry in ITU meetings and study groups has reinforced U.S. leadership in the field and has resulted in the international adoption of some U.S. communications standards, thus increasing the overseas demand for U.S. telecommunication products and services.

Commerce
There are numerous UN-affiliated organizations--such as the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)--that serve U.S. commercial interests behind the scenes. U.S. membership in WMO provides access to weather data of immense benefit to American farmers, shipping, and aviation. By sharing its data with other countries through WMO, the U.S. gains access to global weather data, a much less expensive alternative than gathering data independently.

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Article:
Why America Still Needs the United Nations (http://tharoor.in/articles/why-america-still-needs-the-united-nations/)

Parts:

Summary: Multilateralism is a means, not an end, and there is no more multilateral body than the UN. That may make it unwieldy at times, but the UN's inclusiveness is the key to the legitimacy only it can confer. The organization thus remains an essential force in international politics, and one the United States benefits from greatly.

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The UN helps establish the norms that many countries-including the United States-would like everyone to live by. Throughout its history, the United States has seen the advantages of living in a world organized according to laws, values, and principles; in fact, the republic was not yet 30 years old when it first went to war in defense of international law (attacking the Barbary pirates in 1804), and it has done so multiple times since, including in the first Gulf War. The UN, for all its imperfections-real and perceived-reflects this American preference for an ordered world.

That Washington has often used force on behalf of such principles makes good political sense. After all, acting in the name of international law is always preferable to acting in the name of national security. Everyone has a stake in the former, and so couching U.S. action in terms of international law universalizes American interests and comforts potential allies. When American actions seem driven by U.S. national security imperatives alone, partners can prove hard to find-as became clear when, in marked contrast to the first Gulf War, only a small “coalition of the willing” joined Washington the second time around in Iraq. Working within the UN allows the United States to maximize what Joseph Nye calls its “soft power”-the ability to attract and persuade others to adopt the American agenda-rather than relying purely on the dissuasive or coercive “hard power” of military force.

Global challenges also require global solutions, and few indeed are the situations in which the United States or any other country can act completely alone. This truism is currently being confirmed in Iraq, where Washington is discovering that it is better at winning wars than constructing peace. The limitations of military strength in nation building are readily apparent; as Talleyrand pointed out, the one thing you cannot do with a bayonet is to sit on it.

Equally important, however, is the need for legitimacy, and here again the UN has proven invaluable. The organization’s role in legitimizing state action has been both its most cherished function and, in the United States, its most controversial. As the world’s preeminent international organization, the UN embodies world opinion, or at least the opinion of the world’s legally constituted states. When the UN Security Council passes a resolution, it is seen as speaking for (and in the interests of) humanity as a whole, and in so doing it confers a legitimacy that is respected by the world’s governments, and usually by their publics. When the resolution in question is passed under Chapter VII of the charter-that document’s enforcement provisions-it becomes legally binding on all member states.

[chloe]

we have to cutback this year, as were ina recession:laugh:


With the United States' $440 million annual dues to the organization making up about 22 percent of the United Nations' budget, much is at stake when Congress threatens not to pay.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/international/un_reform/paying_dues.html