Trump’s Tirade against UN

President Donald Trump’s 56-minute address to the 80^th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) on September 23 was an unprecedented tirade against his predecessor and the international community. He targeted the latter both directly and through expressing his ire at the United Nations (UN). In condemning the UN, he overlooked the fact that it is a creature of the international community. More specifically, it was created by the victors of the Second World War, especially the US, to become their instrument to protect their interests and maintain international peace and security. The US emerged from the war as the world’s strongest power; it has retained its pre-eminence throughout these eight decades. It defeated the challenge from the Soviet Union; in 1991 it went into the dustbin of history. That also marked the end of the Cold War. Today it is China that has emerged as the US’s main rival but the US is still ahead in terms of overall power.

The contemporary world order was essentially crafted by the US. The UN’s present shortcomings are because the US and other permanent members of the Security Council have not been willing to accept that UN structures, especially the Council itself, need to be reformed. Changes in the UN are needed because the power equations of 1945 simply do not exist anymore. Instead of working to reform the UN, Trump rails against its weaknesses! Trump’s extreme unhappiness with the UN is really symptomatic of his disdain for multilateralism. His policies and actions have emphasized that US national interests are best served through the unilateral application of its power. The fact that he has not succeeded, as he had expected, in ending the Ukraine war, has not given him the obvious lesson that in this integrated world, geo-political issues and other crises can only be resolved through the cooperative efforts of the global community and reconciling contending interests. No single state can do this by itself.

Trump’s unilateralism and his refusal to accept the lessons of science have resulted in turning his back on the existential crisis of our times—climate change. Trump devoted a large part of his speech to climate change. Refuting the very notion of climate change Trump said “It’s the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world, in my opinion. Climate change, no matter what happens, you’re involved in that. No more global warming, no more global cooling. All of these predictions made by the United Nations and many others, often for bad reasons were wrong. They were made by stupid people that of course their country’s fortunes and given those same countries, no chance for success. If you don’t get away from this green scam, your country is going to fail”.

The evidence of climate change and its adverse impact on the planet is all around us. Every country has been affected by it. Extreme climate events such as floods, wild fires, periods of intense heat and cold are being witnessed more and more every year. Climatologists warned that global temperatures should not rise above 1.5% Celsius above pre-industrial levels. They are breaching that limit. Climatologists further warn that if they go over 2% Celsius than the impact on the planet would be catastrophic. The main way to contain temperatures is by reducing the use of hydrocarbons. That is accepted by all responsible leaders across the world. However, Trump believes in the unbridled use of hydrocarbons. He especially advised European leaders to give up renewable energy which he said was a “joke”. Interestingly he disclosed that he had advised the British Prime Minister to lift restrictions on the use of North Sea oil.

While Trump may truly believe that the idea of anthropogenic climate change is a hoax, the fact is that behind his thinking lies the notion that the advanced world does not owe a historic responsibility for undertaking colonial exploitation and excessively contributing to the production of green-house gases. Having contributed to the warming of the planet they have a duty to assist the poorer countries in adapting and mitigating the impact of climate change. For this purpose, they have to assist them financially and technologically. Trump’s vision extends only to the US. He simply does not understand that increased temperatures will affect every country and even the US with, all its power, cannot remain immune from its impact. His address to the UN has once again confirmed that his administration’s blindness on climate change. With the world’s most important country denying climate change the prospects of others acting purposefully get reduced.

Apart from climate change the other issue on which Trump spent a lot of time was illegal migration. He took great pride that his administration has succeeded in stopping illegal migrants from entering the US. He also noted that illegal migration was causing havoc in Europe including in posing a challenge to its way of life. He blamed the UN for being responsible for illegal migration. He was right when he spoke about the dangers that illegal migrants took and how human traffickers took advantage of the aspirations of the poor for a better life abroad. The fact though is that the US itself cannot do without cheap labour and it is doubtful if Trump will want to throw all of the illegals out of the country. Some segments of the US economy especially agriculture will be damaged very much without this cheap labour. Hence, despite all of Trump’s rhetoric there is a great deal of US hypocrisy on migration.