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Cato Policy Analysis No. 304

April 23, 1998

THE UNITED NATIONS DEBT

Who Owes Whom?

by Cliff Kincaid

Cliff Kincaid is a journalist who writes frequently on UN affairs. He is president of

America's Survival, Inc., and director of the American Sovereignty Action Project.

Executive Summary

Claims that the United States owes the United Nations more than $1 billion are

false. No legal debt exists or can exist. The UN Charter does not empower the organiza-

tion to compel payment from any member state.

Even the notion that the United States owes money in the sense of a moral

obligation is fallacious. It ignores the military and other assistance that the Clinton

administration has provided the UN and for which the United States has not been properly

credited or reimbursed. Over the past five years, that assistance has amounted to at least

$11 billion, and perhaps as much as $15 billion. The administration has been diverting

funds from federal agencies, especially the Department of Defense, to the United Nations.

Allegations of debt have distracted attention from a disturbing administration

policy of providing resources, personnel, and equipment to the UN without the advance

approval of Congress. In effect, the administration and the UN have been conducting

important elements of U.S. foreign and military policy and bypassing Congress's power of

the purse. That tendency raises grave constitutional concerns.

Because of the work of Rep. Roscoe Bartlett (R-Md.) on the debt issue, Congress

is now aware of the situation and has an opportunity to reassert its constitutional author-

ity. Bartlett has authored legislation to prevent payment of any alleged debt to the United

Nations until all U.S. assistance to that organization is factored into the financial rela-

tionship. That approach would help restore the constitutional balance between the

executive and legislative branches and put the United Nations on notice that it does not

have an automatic claim on resources of the U.S. Treasury.