Four panelists gave various forecasts for the future of the United Nations yesterday but agreed that reform is essential if the organization is to retain its vitality as a viable international force.
The panelists described the U.N.'s 50th anniversary as a time of uncertainty in a discussion titled, "Peacekeeping Plus: The U.N. and International Security" in the Hinman Forum of the Rockefeller Center for the Social Sciences.
"The U.N., in essence, is very much like a fifty-year old adolescent ... that doesn't know what it wants to be when it grows up," said Edward Luck '70, former president of the U.N. Association of the United States.
Luck, speaking before about 75 people, offered an optimistic view for the U.N.'s future. "Peacekeeping is the most visible side, but it isn't the beginning or the end of the story," Luck said. "There are many other things going on."
Luck said the U.N. has been able to handle a number of roles effectively, including arms control, arms monitoring and peacekeeping.
Marian Chambers '76, a staff member for the U.S. House of Representatives' Committee on International Relations, attacked Republican proposals to cut foreign affairs spending, calling it"a terrible, terrible piece of legislation."
She said she expects at least 20 to 30 percent to be cut from the foreign affairs budget.
But she said the U.N. has partly brought the criticism upon itself. "No one knows what the budget of the U.N. is," she said. "The budget is completely opaque."
Ronald Spiers '48, a former U.N. undersecretary general, said, "With any institution, evolution is going to be gradual and episodic. I'm used to cycles of euphoria and disphoria ... both are unrealistic."
"I think the most important thing about the U.N. is that it survived the Cold War," he said.
"I think it will develop further in the future, partly in those areas where governments can't cope on their own."
Emilio Cardenas, the Argentine ambassador to the U.N. who has served in the Security Council, noted that only 33 out of 185 member nations contribute more than 500 soldiers to the U.N. forces -- resulting in a "piggybacking problem."
