Bush Ends UNESCO Boycott Started by Reagan

by Jim Lobe

The decision, announced by Bush almost as a warm-up in a 20-minute speech in which he harangued the UN General Assembly on the need to confront Iraq's violation of past Security Council resolutions, appeared designed to reassure his audience that Washington is committed to multilateral enterprises.

"This organization has been reformed, and America will participate fully in its mission to advance human rights, tolerance, and learning," Bush said to applause.

The announcement was immediately greeted with enthusiasm by UNESCO director-general Koichiro Matsuura, who said he was "proud to offer my full commitment to assist in reintegrating the United States into the life and work of the organization."

"I look forward to the possibility of closer collaboration with the enormous intellectual and cultural resources of the American academic and scientific communities, and fuller contact with the extraordinary cultural diversity that characterizes American life," he said.

A founding member of UNESCO in 1948, Washington historically was its biggest financial contributor, covering 25 percent of its $180-million annual budget at the time of its withdrawal in 1984.

The Reagan administration originally ordered the pullout to protest what it called UNESCO's "anti-U.S." politicization and "extravagant budgetary mismanagement" under then-director-general Amadou Mahtar M'Bow of Senegal.

"UNESCO has extraneously politicized virtually every subject it deals with, has exhibited hostility toward the basic institutions of a free society, especially a free market and a free press, and has demonstrated unrestrained budgetary expansion," the State Department charged at the time.

Washington was particularly incensed about the agency's advocacy of a "New World Information and Communication Order" (NWICO), an effort to provide more balance in the flow and content of news between developed and developing countries.

Major U.S. media argued that NWICO would harm press freedom and launched a campaign against it, led by the World Press Freedom Committee (WPFC) and the neo-conservative human rights group, Freedom House, and against UNESCO as one of its perceived sponsors.

After Washington's withdrawal, Britain and Singapore, citing similar reasons, also left the agency, although Britain returned in 1997.

Despite M'Bow's replacement in 1987 by a western favorite, Federico Mayor of Spain, and the WPFC's decision a few years later to give Mayor its annual press-freedom award, the administration of former President George H.W. Bush rejected appeals that he return Washington to the agency. By that time, the Christian Right, whose support was considered indispensable to Bush's re-election chances, had also targeted UNESCO and other UN agencies perceived to threaten U.S. sovereignty.

But the election of former President Bill Clinton in 1992 brought an entirely new attitude to the White House. In 1993, the State Department carried out an inter-agency review of UNESCO and recommended returning to the organization in 1995. Clinton even praised the agency, publicly calling its work in promoting the free flow of information across political borders "integral to the success of global democratization."

Several top Clinton aides, notably his chief economic adviser, Gene Sperling, Secretary of Education Richard Riley -- who both attended the April, 2000, World Education Forum in Dakar, Senegal -- tried hard to persuade Clinton to take the leap in his last six months in office.

They were backed by key U.S. professional, educational and scientific associations that had been calling for Washington's return since shortly after its withdrawal. But Clinton, who was consumed with Middle East negotiations for much of that time, decided against it.

While the incoming Bush administration simply ignored the issue, UNESCO's defenders in the House of Representatives, led by Republican Rep. Jim Leach and Democratic Rep. Tom Lantos, surprised everyone in May 2000 when they successfully amended the foreign aid bill in committee to include an authorization for UNESCO and then defeated a Republican-led attempt to strip it in a 225-193 vote on the floor.

The proposal is currently being considered in a House-Senate conference committee which is, in light of Bush's announcement, much more likely to approve it. Lantos today praised Bush's announcement, insisting that UNESCO's "programs to promote understanding across cultures are a critical asset in our global effort to defeat the hatred that breeds terrorism".

Leach, a leader of the dwindling band of internationalist Republicans in Congress, said he was "extremely pleased that there is finally a recognition that the United States can constructively engage with other countries in a UN setting in the areas of education, science and culture".

Opposition to UNESCO still exists, but it is confined primarily to the Christian Right which, although influential in the Republican-led House, is more inclined to save its political ammunition for other foreign-policy debates.

Precisely how and when Washington will rejoin was left unclear both by Bush and U.S. officials. State Department officials said they were taken by surprise by the announcement and were still figuring out how much Washington would have to pay in assessed membership dues and other obligations.

Ted Turner's United Nations Foundation (UNF), which has long supported a return to UNESCO, said Washington will probably have to pay about $60 million in dues, but others sources predicted the figure would be somewhat higher. The agency's total budget comes to about $240 million, but the dilapidated state of its building and infrastructure has required major capital investments.

A number of observers credited today's announcement to former Secretary of State George Shultz, who ordered Washington's withdrawal in the first place, and who has been a mentor and close adviser of Bush's national security adviser Condoleezza Rice.

Lobbied hard by academic and scientific groups, including the WPFC which has supported membership for more than a decade, Shultz has recently made clear that he strongly supports Washington's return to UNESCO.

The Shultz-Rice connection, which is often overlooked by foreign-policy aficionados here, could explain why State Department officials responsible for ties with specialized UN agencies appeared to have been caught almost completely off-guard by Bush's announcement.