The Obama Administration's National Security Strategy drops today. No big surprises for those who have been following Administration rhetoric and action over the past eighteen months or so. The United Nations and "UN issues" -- like global health, genocide prevention, and fighting poverty -- feature prominently. The "Millennium Development Goals" are even mentioned by name.
David Roberts has a powerful essay up at Grist.
I'm curious to see how the public's mood shifts once it becomes clear that we are powerless in the face of this thing. What if there's just nothing we can do? That's not a feeling to which Americans are accustomed.
Over at Huffington Post the Egyptian and Chadian ambassadors to the United States team up in an op-ed. They use the occasion of Africa Day to stress the importance of the health related Millennium Development Goals. Meanwhile, in a statement posted to the UN Foundation website, Foundation chief Sentator Tim Wirth has echoes the ambassadors' call to action.
A new study by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington shows that childhood mortality rates have plummeted world-wide since 1990. According to the report, "Worldwide mortality in children younger than 5 years has dropped from 11.9 million deaths in 1990 to 7.7 million deaths in 2010, a rate of decline that is faster than expected."
That's good news. But it gets better:
Newsweek has my take on Ban's rather remarkable suggestion yesterday that the Security Council take action on North Korea.
May 29 is International Day of Peacekeeping. As the video below shows, this has been a very difficult year: before the Haiti tragedy, 121 peacekeepers were killed in the line of duty. The Haiti earthquake added 96 peacekeepers to that toll. Still, the world depends on UN Peacekeeping. There are 122,000 peacekeepers in 15 missions across the globe.
Our friends at the Better World Campaign* are slamming the Texas State Board of Education's decision to adopt social studies curriculum that misrepresents the United Nations.
Here is the full statement from Peter Yeo, Executive Director of the Better World Campaign:
It is sort of rare for a Secretary General -- and Ban Ki Moon in particular -- to say that the Security Council should take action on a particular issue. (The M.O. tends to be extreme deference to the Security Council.) So it was fairly notable that this morning, in reference to North Korea's alleged sinking of a South Korean naval ship, that Ban told press: "I'm confident that the council, in fulfilling its responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security, will take measures appropriate to the gravity of the situation."
Ugh. It seems that a group of some 20 masked gunmen stormed a UN-administered summer camp in Gaza and vandalized the place. They tied up the guard and left a note threatening the United Nations in Gaza.