Former UN adviser calls for UN cooperation with during UCA speech

Jeffrey Laurenti, former senior adviser to the United Nations Foundation, emphasized the importance of the United Nations' role to achieve international peace and called for the United States to cooperate more in the process.

Laurenti was the keynote speaker at the annual United Nations Day Luncheon held at the UCA campus on Friday. UCA President Lu Hardin and more than 80 UCA professors and students attended the luncheon.

Laurenti expressed that Bush's administration has shifted its attitude toward the United Nations and now supports the organization in achieving international peace. Hardin for attended the luncheon the first time and gave a welcoming speech, introducing him as "one of the premier experts in the area of terrorism (and) international peace."

"In 2002, President Bush was warning the rest of the world that the U.N. will be irrelevant if it does not authorize another military operation against Iraq," Laurenti said. "(However) Bush's administration rejoined the (U.N. conference), participated in, and pledged to support increased levels of funding for development to meet the U.N. development code."

The United States cooperated with the United Nations in '90s under the former president Clinton's administration, but tended to be less involved with it since Bush's inauguration.

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Laurenti mentioned the declaration of peace between Israel and Palestine in 1993, called the Oslo Accords, which led to Palestinian Liberation.

"It was the U.N., not the United States ... to bring the parties together between Israel and Palestine to negotiate and end the war (since) 1948," Laurenti said.

Throughout the speech, Laurenti stressed on the importance of American involvement with the United Nations.

"The (Bush) administration ... acknowledges that American measures to solve problems our-way, 100-percent, would be costly or counterproductive," Laurenti said.

Some citizens agreed with Laurenti in a nationwide survey, called "American Attitudes Toward National Security, Foreign Policy and the War on Terror" conducted by the Century Foundation in 2005 which collected responses from 1,600 adults who had voted in the 2004 presidential election.

"Sixty-three to 32 percent margin (of the people polled) ... want America to cooperate with other countries and compromise rather than alternatively 'put America interests first at all time, even acting alone.'"

Laurenti also answered questions from the audience.

"What is the chance to expand the (United Nation) Security Council's permanent seats," asked Julia Evans, a student from Pulaski Academy High School. Laurenti answered that the Bush administration's desire is stay with five seats or even less.

"We don't want to see the security council to be large; we don't want more permanent members," Laurenti said. "The ideal security council... will have fewer (members)."

However, Laurenti implied the United States will support Japan among other applying nations such as Brazil and Germany if a such need is arisen.

The luncheon was sponsored by the UCA Model United Nations Organization, Arkansas Model United Nations (AMUN) Program, Political Science Department of UCA, UCA Alliance for the International Criminal Court and the Arkansas Committee on Foreign Relations.

Mark Mullenbach, coordinator of the AMUN, said, "He touched all of the international issues, including Middle East, North Korea, Iran, Sudan. I think we learned about the role of the United Nations in the international political system."

Laurenti is the author of numerous monographs on subjects including international peace and security, terrorism and U.N. reform. He has contributed articles for the Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, New York Newsday and international policy journals.

Laurenti is currently is a director of Foreign Policy Programs in the Century Foundation, a nonprofit public policy research institution.