We must renew our commitment to international law and
multilateral cooperation. This means expanding the United Nations Security Council to
reflect international realities. And it means ethical reform at the U.N. so that this vital
institution can meet the challenges of the 21st century. It means more third world debt
relief and a World Bank focus on poverty reduction. It means shifting aid from loans to
grants for the poorest countries. It means reviving the Doha round of trade talks and
seeking trade agreements which seriously address wage disparities, worker rights, and the environment. It means more resources for the IMF so that it can protect the international economy from financial panic and shock. And it means respecting the Geneva Convention and joining the International Criminal Court.
BRS Focus: I don't want to sound crazy of anything, but this is a internationalist progressive's dream (read:mine) speech. It reads as a straight list of serious issues that need to tackled by the world community. Expansion of the Security Council would be a huge diplomatic coup for the United States and be a boon to our regional diplomacy efforts.
Having a presidential candidate boldy speak of the UN as a "vital organization" is a HUGE step in the right direction.
He outlines a little bit more here:
What would I do on the U.N. Security Council? I would add Germany and Japan as permanent members. I would not give them veto power because veto power, there is
five – you know, we’ve invested in that. Why should they get veto power? But they
should be members of the Security Council. I would also say to Asia and Africa and
Latin America, you deserve a seat too, but you figure out, perhaps on a rotating basis,
who represents Africa, Asia and Latin America. So I would expand the Security Council
– it’s now five – to those 10.
I would add the Middle East, actually. If we're really talking about soft power projection, it would do much to flip around notions of US exclusivism in the Security Council. It could also have the additional consequence of countries using internal political change to lobby for a seat on the council. Soft power, gotta love it (neocons can go to hell).
It is funny how often we don't hear in our routine political discourse about serious international organization reform (besides John Bolton remarking about lopping off the top floors of the UN building) when our continued dominance and dysfunction of those organizations pervades much distrust of our cause abroad.
