Engaging Today's Global Citizens

The US Role in Oil-for-Food

Much has been written on the need for the United Nations to improve, and recent reform efforts have generally drawn a verdict of failure. Especially after the Oil-for-Food investigation, the United Nations was heavily criticized in the US media as a corrupt and useless organization.

What was less covered was the extent of US mismanagement in Iraq. Only a few outlets covered the US Special Inspector for Iraq Report, issued January 30, which found widespread evidence of mismanagement and corruption in the reconstruction efforts.

Additionally, it was reported that the United States was not exempt from responsibility in the scandal. It is key to remember that the United Nations consists of member countries and is not a single entity in and of itself. You cannot blame the United Nations as a whole for results because a lot depends on the will and actions of individual states.

The question this raises is why the United Nations should be so heavily criticized when the United States has not done any better?

Some positives have emerged from the UN reform process, writes Foreign Policy in Focus' Ian Williams. He argues that part of the problem is that for US policymakers, UN reform often means the adaptation of US positions. Williams urges policymakers to look deeper, beyond cosmetic bureaucratic details, when assessing those reform efforts.

—Sherif Hamdy