The InterDependent

The United States took its turn in the rotating presidency seat at the Security Council in December, opening up some meetings to nongovernmental groups as well as to youngsters, allowing those who are not normally allowed entrée into the horseshoe arena a taste of the power that the council wields.

Susan Rice, the US ambassador to the UN, became more noticeable as well, her low-key style notched up for longer, informative stakeouts with the media after council meetings on such boiling crises as Côte d’Ivoire, North Korea and Sudan as well as issues like nuclear nonproliferation, WikiLeaks revelations, the war in Afghanistan and the “situation in the Middle East,” handling the gavel as the president with ambassadorial relish.

In the middle of the busy chain of events came the death of Richard Holbrooke on Dec. 13, the US special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan. Holbrooke is remembered at the UN as a very active and outspoken US ambassador who played a large part in turning the attention of the Security Council to Africa.

Rice, her bright blouses adding flourishes of color in the morass of monochromatic suits at the council, still a male bastion, prevailed at meetings up until Christmas. By then, she had developed a hoarse voice, which required sips of water to alleviate in one speech, causing her to gasp as she realized the resolution she was reading was many pages long.

“She was superactive and planned a host of events, danced at the UN Correspondents Association dinner, let CNN make a spoof video of her, filled with bleeps, that was shown at the dinner,” said Evelyn Leopold, a veteran UN reporter for Reuters who now writes for Huffington Post.

John McIlwaine/UN Photo

Susan Rice, the US ambassador to the UN, held the presidency of the Security Council in December. Here, she votes on a resolution to extend the African Union mission in Somalia.

For the UN, which has been fielding increased criticism from the press corps and nongovernmental groups that it is becoming less accessible, the December welcome mat seemed refreshing.

As Samir Sanbar, a longtime UN watcher and former head of the UN’s information department, said of the atmosphere last month: The regular sense of “aloof diplomacy” at the UN took a vacation, and Rice did “fairly well” given her need to travel to Washington so often and deal with “internal cross-currents within the US administration” over primary issues.

Maurizio Guerrero, who covers the UN for the Mexican State News Agency, said that Rice conducted business as usual – a compliment, in his mind. “In general, Rice is very articulate and makes a very good diplomat compared to other Security Council diplomats,” he said. She is “very outspoken and likes to interact with the press and is not very defensive when speaking about the Security Council in general.”

It was hardly a dull month. The news from Côte d’Ivoire, where the losing president, Laurent Gbagbo, has refused to cede his office to the internationally recognized winner, Alassane Ouattara, kept the Security Council alert. The crisis continues this month, a test of the UN’s resolve that Gbagbo must go. Last week, the UN Peacekeeping Department said it would send up to 2,000 more troops to strengthen its 9,000-person force already in the country, but no council resolution has been passed condemning Gbagbo yet, though sanctions are in place [read “New Sanctions Aim to Break the Will of Gbagbo’s Camp” in The ID].

In East Africa, Sudan was approaching its crucial referendum on Jan.9 to determine a north-south two-party state, a situation requiring constant monitoring from the UN as well. This week, the vote is under way. And then there was North Korean bullying, also demanding round-the-clock attention. After eight hours of private meetings and consultations at the UN, Rice emerged at the stakeout on Dec. 19, conceding that the council tried but failed to reach unanimity on condemning the North Korean attacks on South Korea.

Evan Schneider/UN Photo

US Vice President Joseph Biden presided at a Security Council meeting on Iraq in December. Susan Rice, the US ambassador to the UN, stands behind him.

In keeping with its outreach throughout the month, the US mission invited nongovernmental organizations with UN passes to sit in on four Security Council meetings --covering Iran, Iraq (with US Vice President Joseph Biden presiding) and two on women, peace and security. The latter featured a visit by Margot Wallstrom, a special representative to the secretary general, as well as the formal adoption of a resolution to require reporting on names of perpetrators of sexual violence in conflict zones.

Council members also visited Washington on Dec. 13, meeting people at the State Department and the White House, offering the traditional spouses’ lunch at Blair House. Rice’s husband, Ian Cameron, an ABC correspondent, was the host.

The meeting at the council during Biden's vsit – focused on Iraq -- drew a throng of press photographers as he shook as many hands, Washington style, as possible around the horseshoe table, and Vitaly Churkin, Russia’s permanent representative, was seen tapping his fingers, waiting for the vice president to start the meeting.

The US mission also convened panel discussions at its headquarters in December. Both events focused on women who have suffered in conflict zones – namely, victims of mass rapes in Bosnia and in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The events featured panelists and short films, attracting an audience of mostly women, who peppered panelists with questions and opinions.

Amid the stream of geopolitical fallouts was a youth day – Dec. 21 – when about 300 youngsters from New York City schools, Model UN programs (including United Nations Foundation’s Global Classrooms) and elsewhere converged at the UN to sit in the Security Council chamber and have their voices heard, with Rice at the helm and council members and Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon present, too.

Paulo Filgueiras/UN Photo

The US mission put on a first-ever youth event at the Security Council in December, attracting about 300 students from around New York City.

That was the intent until an ominous smell forced the event to the North Lawn Building. (It turned out to be a sewage odor from the East River.) It didn’t matter: the youngsters, so close to the holidays and so excited to participate at the United Nations, kept up their spirits, dressed smartly to endure lengthy speeches of delegates on such topics as human security and terrorism, their presence reminding the dignitaries what it’s like to be young again.

“I think it was a good venue for diplomats to hear what young people are concerned about,” Guerrero, the UN correspondent, said. “It was very positive for the Security Council.”

The Chinese delegate, Ambassador Wang Min. relied on a proverb to convey to the youngsters the challenges before the UN. He said, Think about two siblings fighting over one piece of chocolate; instead of fighting over it, the mother can divide it – finding a peaceful solution, much like the UN’s work. (To watch the Webcast of the event, go to www.unmultimedia.org/tv/webcast/2010/12/sc-open-meeting-english.html.)

The event was the culmination of a contest, sponsored by the US mission, asking youths around the world to answer the question, What is the most vital challenge to international peace and security facing your generation? More than 900 submissions from 90 countries were sent in video, e-mails, on old-fashioned paper or as Facebook entries (www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCgEtPhDO2U. To read the submissions in full, go to www.state.gov/youth).

The responses reflected general anxiety about the world. Hani Daou, a 16-year-old from Beirut, wrote: “I’ve always asked myself, how does a war last so long? If a dispute was to originate in one generation between two nations, how is it that the same dispute ignites a war nearly 50 years after?”

As Rice, who has two children of her own, told the gathering on Dec. 21, “We owe it to you, the next generation, to provide a more peaceful world of growing prosperity, equality, democracy and opportunity.”

But even the youth event incurred its own squabbles. As Colum Lynch reported on it in his Turtle Bay blog, France “blocked the showing of one video by a German teenager that promoted nuclear disarmament, while Russia blocked another, and African leaders objected to the showing of a video depicting classic scene of poor African refugees, on the ground its reinforced negative African stereotypes.” No one, however, blocked the pizza party afterward at the US mission.

Critics of the UN abound, and impressions of what went on in December left some shrugging. Thomas Weiss, the director of the Ralph Bunche Institute for International Studies at the City University of New York, deemed the proceedings at the Security Council ordinary. “Sometimes a president comes on and announces a big deal in advance,” he said, citing the way Holbrooke, who was a US ambassador to the UN from 1999 to 2001, handled the post. But nowadays, new initiatives at the council by the US are not there because the US administration in Washington “has other fish to fry” – including contending with a Republican-heavy House of Representatives.

“I think that initiatives at the UN would basically get you points without costing you much,” Weiss said, adding that they would “go a long way to improve relations with the rest of the planet.”

This month, Bosnia-Herzegovina assumes the presidential seat, with Ivan Barbalic in charge. He held a meeting with the UN press corps on Jan 5. At his Security Council stakeout that day, he stayed less than two minutes.