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1、联合国的未来 The Future of UN（英语文摘）译者点评：联合国作为一个极为重要的国际组织，在维护世界和平与发展，解决国际争端等问题上发挥着不可替代的作用。一年前，美国不顾众多国家的反对，悍然发动了伊拉克战争，使联合国的国际地位与应有作用遭受了前所未有的质疑。回顾联合国的创立和发展，人们必然要深刻反思联合国目前所受到的挑战。The invasion of Iraq destroyed the regime of Saddam Hussein as it was intended to do but did it also mark the beginning of the end f
2、or the United Nations Is the UN of any use at all in a world in which a single country towers over all others in military political and economic clout and is bent on having its own wayFor some people the UN Security Councils apparent reluctance to enforce its own resolutions against Iraq was a disgr
3、ace. For others the diplomatic armtwisting and public posturing in the council by the United States was a sordid spectacle that ended with America and Britain brushing the council aside and launching an invasion without a second resolution. However the Iraq episode is viewed the UNs standing has tak
4、en a beating. The bombing of the organizations Baghdad offices casts an ominous shadow over its attempts to play a useful role in Iraq though paradoxically it may also have encouraged a tentative rapprochement between America and its Security Council critics. Does the UN have a futureThe UN was abov
5、e all an American creation. Following the League of Nations fiasco after the first world war no other country had much enthusiasm for a second attempt at a world body. Both Stalin and Churchill were openly sceptical. But for Americas president Franklin Roosevelt establishing the United Nations was a
6、 top priority. Even while America continued to fight a world war on two fronts Roosevelt devoted large amounts of time and political capital to his pet project.After years of planning in Washington Roosevelt seriously ill traveled to Yalta in early 1945 to win Stalins agreement on postwar arrangemen
7、ts. The centerpiece of these would be the UN. Many of the people close to Roosevelt believed that the trip hastened his death which came two months later only 13 days before the UNs founding conference in San Francisco was scheduled to begin. Stepping into his shoes an inexperienced and somewhat sha
8、ken Harry Truman promptly announced that the UN conference would go ahead and committed himself to its success. The American delegation arrived in San Francisco armed with detailed blueprints and negotiating strategies and then spent two intense months hammering out a final agreement with 46 other c
9、ountries. In the United States the result was hailed as a triumph of American diplomacy.The most striking aspect of this tale is that in 1945 Americas global dominance was even greater than it is today. All other great powers lay in ruins while America itself was spared bombing or invasion. Americas
10、 factories were working at full tilt. Its armed forces were the most powerful in the world by far and it was only months from unveiling a terrible new weapon the atomic bomb which no other country possessed. Americas economic output by some estimates was half of the worlds total.At the peak of Ameri
11、cas powers in other words its leaders were determined to create a multilateral institution involving as many nations as possible as a primary mechanism for ensuring American as well as global security. In his speech before the San Francisco conference Truman was explicit about the price of doing so.
12、 “We all have to recogniseno matter how great our strengththat we must deny ourselves the licence to do always as we please.” For America itself Truman argued this was a price well worth paying. The contrast with the attitude of most subsequent American governments and especially the current one cou
13、ld not be more stark. Many Bush administration officials seem to view the UN either as an irrelevance or as a dangerous constraint.Roosevelt was one of the savviest and most hardheaded politicians ever to occupy the White House. He had no intention of repeating the mistakes of Woodrow Wilson whose L
14、eague of Nations was repudiated by the American Senate and then became an impotent talking shop as the world slid towards another world war. Roosevelts new organization was to include as many nations large and small as possible but it was to be dominated by the great powers and when they were able t
15、o agree it was meant to have real muscle.The conferences participants were also under no illusions about what was at stake. The second world war had not yet ended and frictions between the United States and the Soviet Union were already growing threatening yet another round of conflict. Participants
16、 did not dream that they were laying the foundations for world government. Their aim was a global security pact strong enough to avoid another world war.So has the UN worked as its founders hoped Certain features which sparked fierce debate in San Francisco and loomed large in the original designtrusteeships membership requirements a permanent military staff committee a revision conferenceproved irrelevant
