Is the UN used as a scapegoat?

[ejazr]

The UN's scapegoat function | The Multilateralist

U.S. officials are acknowledging more and more openly that Kofi Annan's efforts in Syria are not producing results. Last week came the admission that the plan hasn't succeeded yet. Now administration officials concede that a new approach might be necessary. White House spokesman Jay Carney put it this way:

However, it is clear, and we will not deny, that the plan has not been succeeding thus far and that the regime (of President Bashar al-Assad) has made no effort to take any of the steps required...If the regime's intransigence continues, the international community is going to have to admit defeat and work to address the serious threat to peace and stability being perpetrated by the Assad regime.

As a description of events on the ground, none of this is surprising; it's been clear for weeks that the Syrian regime was intent on continuing its fight against opponents. But the way in which these acknowledgements are phrased points to an important role that multilateral institutions play: they effectively disperse blame. The defeat belongs to the "international community" (not the administration) and the thing that is failing is Kofi Annan's plan (rather than U.S. diplomacy that helped launch that process).

UN officials are of course acutely aware of their utility as scapegoats, and my sense is that they simply accept the function is part of the job. Nor is the phenomenon all bad. The UN mediation and observer process is being used because there are no politically palatable options for the big players. Syria has already caused plenty of friction between key Security Council members and shuffling the nettlesome issue off to the UN has at least allowed for a respite in the name-calling--if not the shelling.

 

[pack leader]

the UN was is and will be a meaningless organization by its very definition
the UN has no military, no source off continuous income and no independent political standing
its a front to legitimatize the actions off world powers

it is still a dog eat dog world the big dogs simply avoid fighting one another directly
embrace reality and avoid disappointment

no one cares what happens in Syria no oil no strategic implications for world powers
just Arabs acting like Arabs
the UN dead lock is used as an excuse to ignore the situation without admitting indifference to the lives off Syrians

 

[W.G.Ewald]

US should return stolen land to Indian tribes, says United Nations | World news | guardian.co.uk

 

[Tianshan]

its a front to legitimatize the actions off world powers

it is still a dog eat dog world the big dogs simply avoid fighting one another directly

exactly...