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UN must be stronger to fight terrorism, says Straw
(Filed: 02/09/2004)


The United Nations needs to be strengthened and reformed so that it can react more quickly to terrorist threats and the crises such as in Sudan, Jack Straw has said.



The Foreign Secretary said it was "vital" that the UN adapted to new challenges, saying it was the only organisation with the "global reach" to combat the threat of international terrorism.

His comments came as a high-level panel appointed by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan prepared to deliver its verdict on how the organisation should move forward.

Mr Annan has spoken of the UN being "at a fork in the road", with critics saying that arguments for collective action are synonymous with inaction.

In a speech to the Royal Institute of International Affairs at Chatham House in London, Mr Straw said the Russian school siege showed "that terrorists are prepared to attack anyone, anywhere, without a shred of human compassion".

He also highlighted the need for the UN to act on other problems, including Sudan, and argued that no other body could deliver wide-ranging responses to such crises.

"The UN alone offers the global reach which is needed and has the international standing and legitmacy to bring the international community together," he said.

Mr Straw welcomed the UN's recent decision to expand its peace-threatening situations to include the overthrow of democratically elected governments, terrorism and states which flout international rules on weapons of mass destruction.

But he argued that the reform should be taken further so that the UN could react in a consistent way to future problems rather than its current ad hoc approach.

The membership of the Security Council should be broadened and the UN should work more closely with the European Union and Nato so that international action is made more effective.

The UN "needs to be able to act earlier, as threats emerge, and our action needs to be sustained", Mr Straw said.

"Britain has as vital an interest as any country in a strong, modern and effective United Nations," he added.

"The UN's history shows a remarkable capacity to adapt and to realise its potential. We need now to ensure that it continues to do so, to address the security challenges of the next decades."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jh ... altop.html
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Personally I would like to see the UN scrapped and left on the scrapheap of history.


We must reject the idea that every time a law's broken, society is guilty rather than
the lawbreaker. It is time to restore the American precept that each individual is accountable
for his actions. (Ronald W. Reagan)

A new organization that consists of ONLY democratic states would certainly make a hell of a lot more sense.

Even better would be a permanent US/UK/Aus/NZ/Canadian Alliance.

Any organization that includes dozens of dictatorships as full and equal members is inherently flawed, and inherently corrupt.



"Molon labe".
Leonidas, King of Sparta,
Thermopylae, 480 B.C.

I would be in favour of such an organisation, make it a lose military aliance where an attack on one is regarded as an attack on all and offer a few trade benefits for members, plus the such an organisation could be used to anoy the Hell out of China and the Arabs by having Taiwan and Israel as members.

A closer aliance with US/UK/Aus/NZ/Canadian would make sensew as culturally we have a lot in common, we alsoo have a shared language and often uuse similar military hardware, sadly liberals would be against it as it lacks the quota of tin pot dictatorships as members

We must reject the idea that every time a law's broken, society is guilty rather than
the lawbreaker. It is time to restore the American precept that each individual is accountable
for his actions. (Ronald W. Reagan)