U.N. Foundation President Timothy E. Wirth Agency Chief Trying to Boost Stature of United Nations by John Shaw With his diplomatic and political skills on full display, Timothy E. Wirth carefully declined an opportunity to say ìI told you soî to President George W. Bush regarding his belated decision to seek the support of the United Nations for the struggling American effort to stabilize and rebuild Iraq. A former U.S. congressman and undersecretary of state for global affairs, Wirth is now president of the United Nations Foundation and its sister foundation, the Better World Fund. Since early spring, Wirth has been imploring the Bush administration to work closely with the United Nations on Iraq. He has argued that a larger, more defined U.N. role in Iraq would ease the drain on American financial and human resources and relieve the burden of reconstructing the war-torn country. In an interview at the U.N. Foundationís office near Dupont Circle, Wirth said the consequences of an American failure in Iraq would be so profound that it makes no sense now to debate how the United States stumbled into its current predicament. ìAt this point, itís not important how we got into Iraqóthe diplomatic breakdown and so forth. This is a crisis. Itís a crisis for the United States. Itís a crisis for George Bush politically. Itís a crisis for the region. Itís a crisis for the United Nations,î Wirth said. ìThis has to work out well or everybody loses. To look back now is not important. The urgency and immediacy of where we go from here is important.î Wirth said the Bush administrationís slow recognition of the United Nationsí importance in the historic effort to rebuild Iraq is unfortunate because precious time was wasted. ìWe now have a relatively narrow window in which this situation can be put in some workable framework,î he said. ìIím worried that if the U.S. does not engage the U.N. humanitarian and development community and the global political community quickly, there will be terrible chaos.î Wirth said he hopes the administration has learned that the United Nations should be viewed as an important allyónot an adversaryófor its work in Iraq, the war on terrorism and other matters. ìThe United States needs the expertise and support of the U.N. and other allies in rebuilding Iraq. The U.S. alone simply does not have the political, diplomatic and financial resources necessary to carry out the presidentís ambitious plans for stabilizing the Middle East,î Wirth said. A native of Colorado, Wirth graduated from Harvard College and holds a doctorate from Stanford University. He began his career as a White House fellow under President Lyndon Johnson. He later served as deputy assistant secretary of education in the Nixon administration, returning to Colorado in the mid-1970s to win a seat in the House of Representatives. Wirth served in the House from 1975 to 1987, after which he was elected to the Senate, where he served until 1993. In Congress, he specialized in environmental issues, especially global climate change and population control. Weary of electoral politics, Wirth decided not to run for re-election in 1992. He accepted an appointment in the Clinton administration, serving as the first undersecretary of state for global affairs. From this post, Wirth coordinated U.S. foreign policy in the areas of refugees, population, environment, science, human rights and narcotics. ìWhen I was in Congress, I thought I knew how things worked. But when I got to the State Department, I realized I didnít know very much. In the State Department, you have to make things work, make things happen,î he said. Wirth was approached in 1997 by businessman and CNN founder Ted Turner to consider an intriguing opportunity. Turner had recently announced his intention to donate $1 billion for U.N.-related causes and was looking for someone to help him organize and manage this gift. Wirth traveled to Atlanta to meet with Turner to discuss how a foundation might be established, and he quickly agreed to head it up. He then traveled to New York to present a tentative agenda for the foundation to Turner and a draft letter to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan describing the foundationís aspirations. Annan was delighted. As the founding president of the U.N. Foundation, Wirth played a pivotal role in shaping its policy agenda and its public advocacy and resource mobilization programs. The U.N. Foundation seeks to promote a more peaceful, prosperous and just world through the support of the United Nations and its charter. Through grants, building public-private partnerships and public advocacy on behalf of the U.N. system, the foundation tries to address pressing health, humanitarian, socioeconomic and environmental challenges. Wirth said the U.N. Foundation has four broad program priorities: childrenís health, with a special emphasis on reducing child mortality, eradicating polio, and reducing the addiction of children on tobacco; the environment, particularly climate change and biodiversity loss; peace, security and human rights, with an emphasis on conflict prevention and the promotion of human rights; and women and population issues, backing programs to reduce rapid population growth and addressing the development needs of adolescent girls and the quality of their reproductive health. Wirth said these four areas were identified because they are difficult, important and provide real opportunities for success: ìWe wanted to participate in upstream activities as much as possibleóto be preventive as much as possible.î Wirth said that as these programs were being developed, the U.N. Foundation initially focused on improving the crucial relationship between the United Nations and the United States. ìWe decided the most important thing to do right away was get right the relationship between the U.S. and the U.N. Working with the administration, Congress and with grassroots groups across the country, we helped get the billion-dollar U.S. debt paid off, eliminate peacekeeping arrears and facilitate re-entry by the U.S. into UNESCO,î Wirth said, referring to the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. He noted that the U.N. Foundation celebrated its fifth anniversary last year and that its board of directors has decided to extend the organizationís life for another 10 years. According to Wirth, the U.N. Foundation and Better World Fund have awarded more than 350 grants totaling more than $575 million. Additionally, about $150 million has been donated by more than 50 major corporations, governments, nongovernmental organizations and foundations. Wirth said the U.N. Foundation has decided to spend about $50 million each year over the next decade, adding that these funds will leverage between $75 million and $100 million in annual outside contributions. ìThe key has been to use Tedís money as leverage rather than just putting it in and getting it spent,î Wirth said. In addition, the U.N. Foundation has developed program partnerships with nearly 80 organizations outside of the United Nations, including the Rotary International to fight polio, the American Red Cross to combat measles and UNICEF to preserve the worldís most important heritage sites. Wirth said the foundation has also forged a strong working relationship with its governing body, the United Nations. ìWeíre not an independent entity on the outside telling the U.N. what to do,î he said. ìWeíre doing things within agreed U.N. policy. Itís our greatest strength.î Wirth is a passionate supporter of the U.N. system, arguing that the international body is more important today than ever for the vast majority of the worldís peoples and countries, including the United States. He said that as the United Nations has evolved over the last half century, it has become an organization very similar to what was envisaged by the United States, its chief founder and champion. ìItís still the only place where the world can come together to pool strengths and share burdens.î Wirth said that despite all of the criticism directed at the United Nations, it is the only place where global efforts are undertaken to tackle complex problems in health, the environment, poverty, human rights and womenís issues. ìThe U.N. has become the essential means to create the political and physical space necessary for difficult problems to be resolved in ways short of war,î he added. Wirth acknowledged that the U.N. machinery needs to be overhauled and noted that the U.N. Security Council needs to become a better forum for dispute resolution to reach consensual decisions, but he pointed out that the United Nations also serves as a constru ctive balancing force to the United States. ìThe United States is the overwhelming superpower in the world and there is a huge temptation to abuse that power. The U.N. provides a useful check on American power. Itís a good thing to have that check,î he said. ìI agree with something former Secretary of State George Shultz once told me: That if we didnít have the U.N., we would have to invent it, and we probably wouldnít do as good a job the next time around.î In addition to discussing U.N. issues, Wirth relishes the opportunity to debate Americaís national security and foreign policy challenges. He is proud of the U.N. Foundationís work to promote a vigorous exchange of views. For example, it is helping organize nearly 1,000 debates in communities across the country on the future of American foreign policy. Wirth said a vigorous debate on international issues is necessary and added that one important element of the debate should be the Bush administrationís preemption doctrine. This doctrine, he said, is hugely consequential and should be subjected to carefully scrutiny. Wirth himself believes the doctrine is fraught with dangers. ìWhile always a tactic that can be employed in exceptional circumstances, making preemption a basic U.S. doctrine may encourage other states to legitimize their own aggression under the guise of defensive measures,î he said. Wirth said he is more comfortable with a strategy of multilateralism that seeks to build a global consensus in favor of norms and institutions that support American values. The U.N. Foundation president is also very interested in prompting a vigorous debate on Americaís energy strategy, saying he is dissatisfied with the current discussion in Congress that focuses mostly on tax breaks for expanded production, access to public lands and the nuances of electricity regulation. He said the staleness of the debate reflects a failure to grasp the importance of energy policy in relation to defense and homeland security, the economy and the environment. Wirth said U.S. energy policy has failed to address three great challenges: the danger to political and economic security posed by dependence on oil, the risk to global environment from climate change, and the lack of access by the worldís poor nations to modern energy services. To address these challenges, Wirth said the United States needs a blend of careful policy interventions that build on the power of the market, public-private partnerships in financing technology developments, and the development of a political coalition to forge a more comprehensive policy. ìIím not sure if weíre going to be successful on energy, but youíve got to keep trying. Youíve got to keep working on it,î he said. ìIf you donít try, there is a 100 percent chance you wonít be successful.î Wirth said he feels invigorated by his close involvement in such a wide range of issues, all of which allow him to draw on his rich experiences in Congress, the State Department and international diplomacy. ìIíve been lucky. I've had wonderful opportunities,î he said. ìAnd Iím really excited about what weíre doing at the foundation. Weíre getting somewhere. Weíre helping the U.N. This is an absolutely incredible opportunity. There is nothing like it. Nothing like this has been tried before.î John Shaw is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat.