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Nearly eighty years ago the United States experienced a decade long drought that altered the course of American history. Now we live in a time with a drought severe enough to alter the history of the world. According to a Vanguard interview on Current TV, with the United Nations Secretary General, Ban Ki-Moon, “there are fifty countries with nearly 2.7 billion people, who do not have access to water.” In a world where our differences are shrinking, so is the most valuable resource for our survival, our fresh water supply.
According to the United States drought monitor, the state of California reported a record to near record dry spring in hundreds of locations throughout the state. The drought was so severe it prompted Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to declare a statewide drought. In a recent report from the US government Accountability Office, “At least 36 states will experience water shortages within the next five years.” The main areas to be effected will be the Southeast, Southwest, and the Pacific west. How bad is the drought at this moment? The Colorado River no longer ruins into the Gulf of Mexico. Lake Mead has experienced a 60 feet drop in the level of water within the past three years. The Everglades in South Florida is experiencing a shift in its ecosystem as the once freshwater swamp slowly evolves into a saltwater pit. Yet, the United States is not alone.
According to the same Vanguard interview, the northern Chinese province of Hebei, (pronounced Hébĕi) is home to more than two million people and half of the country’s production of wheat. However, the river that feeds life into the area and eventually Beijing has fallen 97% from its original capacity. The country itself is under a desertification. Nearly 2,000 sq/km of arable land turns into desert each year. Today, nearly 25% of China is a desert and one that is continuously growing everyday.
So what brought us to the breaking point? Although some climatologist lean toward global warming, other scientist and those who survived the Dust Bowl of the thirties blame ourselves. With the rapid rise in human population, the demands on necessary resources also drastically increased. Our excessive consumption of water has dried-up rivers and lakes, and has drained our reservoirs, and aqueducts. We, as a specie can not survive without water. Even the plants in which we consume need this resource. In fact the cultivation of the land is also blamed on the current global drought.
Whether is it the over-farming in the plains of China or the man-made canals that redirect runoff water in the United States, humans have altered the natural flow of water. Our methods in farming are far out dated in which they reflect a time when water was in abundance. However, now that we are experiencing a servere drought, our methods must adapt for the sake of our survival. Understanding the causation of a problem and the impact it has will lead to the development of a solution.
Areas that are overwhelming effected by the shortage of water have already begun to take action. Suburban cities in the US have implemented restricitions on the useage of water for lawns. Permitting alternating days dependant upon the numerical address. In Spain where the lack of water has set region against region, water is imported from France, city fountantins have been turned off, and a desalination plant near Barcelona is being constructed to extract water from the sea. Younger cities in the United States such as Irvine, California and Cape Coral, Florida, have constructed a reusable water system. The recycled water is comprised of a collection of used water from homes, businesses, as well as storm runoffs. Once it has been filtered, the water is then redistributed to be used for irrigation purposes for crops, golf courses, wetlands enhancement, and serves as a cooling system for industries. A recycled water system is a component of the citywide water system. Therefore dual distribution provides fresh and recycled water. In Saint Petersburg, Florida this system has reduced portable water usage by 50%. Imagine a similar system in operation throughout every state in the Union and the millions of fresh water that would be saved each year.
We have all witness the value of commodities such as food and energy soar within the year causing civil unrest in developing countries from the islands of Latin America to the plains of Africa. We have been fortunate to find alternatives for these commodities. However, for water there is no subsitute. Each of us has a responsibility, not to consume, but to conserve. Turn off the water when you brush your teeth, fix leaking faucets, do not water turfs. If we do not, water will be a commodity of the wealthy as the rest of humanity slowly dies of thirst.
There are so many concerns that demand our attention these days: our economy, our food supply, our source of energy. When times are difficult, the concerns over the environment are placed on the back burner. On December 1st nearly 4,000 participants comprising of delegates, staffs, activists, and lobbyists, met in Pozan, Poland for the UN Framework on Climate Change. Although the conference was given poor media coverage in the States, the convention attracted all of those who held stake in the UN’s treaty including businesses and civilians. In November I spoke with Wesleyan senior Eli Allen as he prepared with the youth organization SustainUS for their journey to Pozan. ( College Youths Embody New America and Head to the UN) Now that the conference has ended, Eli has returned to the States and was gracious enough to speak with me, once again.
As a small youth organization, SustainUS joined 400 youths from across the world to form the International Youth Delegation (IYD). In a conference as large as this, the IYD was capable of displaying a unified concern from the world’s youth on the global stage. The members from SustainUs also served as liasons from the United States. The Bush administration provided a passive voice at the conference, since the new administration will be the one to determine the US ’s role in the global fight for climate change. The group conversed with delegates and staff members in an attempt to ensure the new and changed America’s committment to the global participation. With the understanding that international interests should also be national interests, Eli and his fellow participants are seeking to broaden international grassroots activism while broadening US support for a climate bill. In order to ensure international success on climate change, “Domestic support is manadtory,” says Eli.
The world will convene once more this fall in Copenhagen, where the climate treaty will be signed. I asked Eli what he and SustainUS will be doing in preparation for the autumn conference, to which he replied, “We came to a realization. Small island developing states are the most progressive members of the UN, however they lack the resources to create change. The global youth have the resources, but they lack the formal influences. We have to combine the two to save all of us.” In times such as these, when everything seems to be crumble, it is refreshing to see those who are fighting to keep it all together. I wish them success, not just for their sake, but for the rest of humanity.
On the first cold day of autumn, just days before his departure, I sat with a young man for a cup of hot coffee. Sitting on a bench I took a moment for a mental note of my surroundings. 
Nestled in the hills of Connecticut, Wesleyan University beckons the images of an old, small, New England college, like a scene from Good Will Hunting. I was meeting with a senior name Eli Allen who was preparing to fly to Pozan, Poland for the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. Allen is a member of Sustain US, a U.S. based youth network for sustainable development. The organization will be sending 23 delegates from around the country to Pozan for the international conference. Of all the applicants, Allen was selected because of his previous E.P.A. policy involvement concerning Environmental Health. “The rise in temperature will affect global health,” says Allen. “There will be an increase in malaria, cholera, and hepatitis because of the shift in our climate.”
For the 12-day conference starting December 1st, the United States will be joining 191 countries. 
As a lame duck administration, President Bush’s role will only be participatory since any agreement crafted at this time will be ratified by the new administration. Hence, the objective in Poland is to serve as a framework for the agreement to be made in Copenhagen next year. As the world awaits for our leaders to convene, Allen and the other participants are preparing for their voyage. The organization plans to bring bags of coal to distribute to countries who seek to abrupt the talks. They are going to represent the generations of Americans the world has only begun to see. So different from their predecessors, these educated, mobile, post-modern youth see the world for now what it is, but for what they envision the world to become. They are going to show the world our new America, and to demonstrate that a new time has begun.
Every individual death is a tragedy for those who knew and loved the person killed. A single violent death sends waves of grief and shock radiating outward through the circles of friends and family of the deceased. War brings death in large doses, and those waves of grief become tsunamis.
But fatality numbers in armed conflict are themselves dangerous things, as they can be used to justify more and deadlier violence.
It is vitally important, for the sake of peace, that we know how many people have died in the war between Russia and Georgia. The breakdown, too, is important; how many Georgian civilians? How many Ossetian civilians? How many soldiers on each side? How many paramilitaries and mercenaries?
Accounts like this are viscerally disturbing, as are ones like this –but numbers of dead are just being thrown out there by refugees and politicians –dozens in this town, a hundred here, several hundred here, more on this side, more on the other side– and then being reported as facts. These numbers aren’t facts, at least not yet. What we need are hard numbers provided by the parties that are normally tasked with doing the body-count work in the thick fog of war: the United Nations and the Red Cross.
In most nationalist conflicts, inflated civilian dead numbers can and do arouse tremendous anger, collective anger that is all too easily channeled by those in power to justify the continuation or escalation of military action and the incitement of paramilitary-driven revenge attacks against civilians. This then makes refugee returns near impossible when the fighting finally stops. Unfortunately, in the long term, it’s the inflated numbers that usually stick in collective memory, rendering reconciliation (citizen to citizen as well as between political factions) and the acceptance of a common historical narrative extremely difficult.
I’m not saying there hasn’t been massive civilian suffering in Georgia. Without a doubt there has been. Numbers won’t alter the basic truth that parents, lovers, friends, children, and schoolmates have been taken away from those they shared their lives with. And it may turn out that even more people have died in this war than even the highest unjustified estimates, but we just don’t know yet. That’s a serious problem, and one that needs to be addressed now.
Today, Anne Hastings Executive Director of Fonkoze Haiti will be receiving the Women Together Award from the UN. On Wednesday May 21st she will be making a speaking at Microfinance Club of NY and WAM NY at a conference titled “Accompanying the Poorest Out of Poverty: The Effect of the Global Food Crisis”. Please see below invitation for Wednesday. Fonkoze has been having a positive impact in Rural Haiti for almost 13 years now and I think it would be interesting to hear more about this organization and the leaders behind it. WAM invites those interested in microfinance to hear Anne Hastings, Executive Director of Fonkoze, Haiti’s largest microfinance institution. Under her leadership, Fonkoze has grown from 2 volunteer employees to over 750 full-time employees. The institution now has 36 branches throughout rural Haiti, with over 165,000 clients, more than 50,000 of whom have microcredit loans. WHEN: Wednesday, May 21st, 2008 This event is free for MFCNY and WAM members. There is a fee of $10 for non-members. Please RSVP to mfclubny@gmail.com to confirm your attendance. Speaker Bio: Before coming to Haiti, Anne had fifteen years of experience in providing strategic management services to executives and in managing young organizations for high performance and steady growth. She was Senior Partner and Managing Director of Scanlon and Hastings, a management consulting company in Washington DC, from 1985 to 1996 and a Senior Analyst at Advanced Technology in Reston, Virginia from 1982 to 1985. Anne holds a PhD from the University of Virginia and an Honorary Doctorate in Business Leadership from Duquesne University. She completed research fellowships at the Brookings Institute and the Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations, both in Washington, DC. Please RSVP to mfclubny@gmail.com to confirm your attendance.
TIME: 6:30-8:00PM
WHERE: Laura Parsons Pratt Conference Center, 281 Park Avenue South, NY NY 10010
Anne Hastings has been the Executive Director of Fonkoze – Haiti’s largest microfinance institution – since May 1996. Under her leadership, the institution has grown from 2 volunteer employees to over 750 full-time employees. The institution now has 36 branches throughout rural Haiti, with over 165,000 clients, more than 50,000 of whom have microcredit loans. In July 2004, Fonkoze spun off its financial services component to form a commercial financial institution. Anne serves on the board of directors of that institution. She also continues to manage the foundation, which is now devoted to monitoring the impact of microfinance on the lives of clients, eliminating illiteracy among its clients, incubating new branches that reach ever poorer and more rural clients with microfinance services, and continually testing and developing innovative new products for the clients of both the commercial entity and the foundation. She is the recipient of the 2005 Pioneer in Microfinance Award of the Grameen Foundation USA. In 2006, she was honored in the First Annual Chiapas Project Recognition Dinner in Dallas, Texas.
On 15 October 2007, a protest was held outside UN headquarters in New York. A group organized by local New Yorkers originating from South Yemen had come to protest the end of occupation of South Yemen. One of the underlining issues of this protest stems from the direct threats made by the President of Yemen- Ali Abdallah Saleh(who is positioned and hails from the north) against southern Yemenites who decided to stage peaceful sit-ins on the 14th of October in South Yemen. Ali Saleh’s regime has been accused of various crimes against southern Yemeni citizens. These include: unjust land confiscation of land belonging to south Yemenis, also half a million south Yemenis have been unfairly and arbitrarily deprived of work either through halting them at their homes or through illegal early retirement. Furthermore, their salaries and pensions are subject to regular suspension, deduction and repeated extortion.
Complaints made to the government have fallen on deaf ears. Hence, Southern Yemenis have submitted various memorandums to the international community including the General Assembly, and the European Union asking them to intervene and help end the occupation of South Yemen.
The leading organization heading this appeal is the Southern Democratic Assembly or “TAJ”, which had also helped form various other organizations including: the Association for the Ousted Military, Security and Civilian Officers and Employees, Youth and Unemployed Association, Owners of Confiscated Lands’ Association, Academics Association and Revolutionaries among others. “TAJ” has now warned Sana’a ‘s authorities that their threats will not deter ongoing
protests and demonstrations and it will continue to demand their human rights despite several casualties and violence perpetrated by Saleh’s regime. “TAJ” has also made appeals to various NGOs and foreign embassies to witness and
reveal the atrocities committed by the government and pressure the existing regime to stop the violations and discrimination.
Human trafficking is a global phenomenon asn in order to effectively fight against it, we must first have an accurate picture of where and how the transport and exploitation actually take place. Geography–both physical and political–plays a significant role in the modern day slave trade. Factors frome terrain characteristics to border patrols help determine trafficking routes by either facilitating or impeding the rapid, clandestine movement of people. Additionally, political, social and economic factors within a society or region can either ‘push’ or ‘pull’ victims into a situation of trafficking. The scale and complexities of human trafficking on a global level are too enormous to adequately address here. However, I’ll try to paint a general picture of current geographical trends. And for those who want more information, most of my research for this post came from the UN’s ‘Trafficking in Persons: Global Patterns’ report (published April 2006).
IMPORTANT TO NOTE when reading this information:
Due to its clandestine nature, statistics on human trafficking at any level are shaky at best. They tend to be either a)actual number of victims rescued or repatriated (always much lower than the total number of victims) or b) estimates of the total number of trafficked victims based on other factors (educated guesses).
As a recent UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) publication reports, "No country is immune, whether as a source, a distination or a transit point for victims of human trafficking." Under the UN’s system of trafficking research, all countries in the world are rated–’very low’, ‘low’, ‘medium’, ‘high’, or ‘very high’–in three categories: ‘origin’, ‘transit point’ and ‘destination’. While each case of human trafficking has its own unique characteristics, nearly all follow the same geographic pattern. People are abducted or recreited in the country of origin, transferred through thransit regions and then exploited in the destination country. The UNODC database that records actual instances of trafficking lists 127 countries of origin and 137 countries where exploitation actually has taken place.
The countries which rank the highest in each of the three categories are as follows:
Countries of Origin: Albania, Belarus, Bulgaria, China, Lithuania, Nigeria, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Russia, Thailand and Ukraine.
Countries of Transit: Albania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Italy, Poland and Thailand
Countries of Destination: Belgium, Germany, Greece, Israel, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Thailand, Turkey and the United States.
A quick glance at these lists shows one glaring trend: human trafficking nearly always flows from poor countries to rich countries with transit points falling somewhere in the areas in-between. These poor-to-rich flows occur in similar patterns at the regional level as well, with the poorest regions acting as suppliers to satisfy demand in richer regions, facilitated by the transit regions in the middle.
Regional Breakdown
Africa is overwhelmingly a region of origin with most victims ending up in Western Europe. However, there are also some networks operating solely within Africa, transporting victims from one part of the continent to another. Western Africa is the most documented destination for victims from other parts of Africa. Demand is highest in Benin, Ghana and Morocco. Most reported African victims originate in Nigeria.
Asia’s figures seem somewhat misleading at first glance because the origin percentages are almost exactly equal to the destination percentages. The reason behind this trend is that most trafficking in Asia occurs within the region. The main countries of origin are China and Thailand (ranked ‘very high’), followed by Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Laos, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philipines and Viet Nam (all ranked ‘high’). However, a smaller number of victims also come from the former Soviet Union. The main destination countries in the region are Thailand, Japan, Israel and Turkey (the latter two are both included in the UN’s subregion of ‘Western Asia and Turkey’). Southeast Asia is seen as a key transit point both in and out of the region.
Central and Southeastern Europe is reported as predominantly an origin region. Victims trafficked out of this region mainly end up in Western Europe. However, trafficking within the region is a serious (and harder-to-trace) problem as well. Central and Southeastern Europe is also reported, although to a lesser extent, as a destination country, with most victims originating in the former Soviet Union. The region as a whole serves as one of the main transit points in the nearly all patterns of trafficking. At a country level, Albania, Bulgaria, Lithuania and Romania are ranked ‘very high’ as origin countries, followed by the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Poland and Slovakia (‘high’).
Western Europe is mainly a destination region. Most victims come from Central and Southeastern Europe; others come from the former Soviet Union, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean. The main destination countries in this region are Belgium, Greece, Germany, Italy the Netherlands ( all ‘very high’).
The Former Soviet Union (or Commonwealth of Independent States) is almost entirely a region of origin with most victims ending up in Western Europe or North America. Belarus, Moldova, the Russian Federation and Ukraine rank highest according to the UN’s figures.
Latin American and the Caribbean is primarily an origin region as well. Most victims are taken to Western Europe and North America. In terms of specific countries, Brazil, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Guatemala and Mexico all rank ‘very high’ as places of origin. Complex (yet inadequately-researched) intra-regional networks exist in Latin America as well, such as the one in and around the ‘Triple Frontera’ (‘Triple Border’) region where Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay meet. A great article by freelance journalist, Oliver Balch, is available here.
North America is reported almost exclusively as a destination with victims reported to come from all main regions of origin.
Oceania is mainly a destination region. Victims mainly originate in Southeast Asia.
So that’s a short summary of how the UN classifies human trafficking geographically. The US State Department has its own system for ranking countries in terms of trafficking risk and publishes an annual report entitled the ‘Trafficking in Persons (TIP)’ report. Countries are placed into one of three tiers based on the "three P’s"–prevention, protection and prosecution (the 1st tier being the best, 3rd the worst). The most current version is available here. These reports can help provide insight into where and how trafficking is actually taking place. However, as with any government report, the reader must ask himself how that individual publication fits into the government’s larger political agenda. Some critics of the US TIP report have suggested that recent fluctuations in particular countries’ standings may be less a measure of their actual anti-trafficking efforts and more a representation of their current diplomatic status with the US government. I personally find the section entitled "Trafficking and Emerging Muslim Leadership" particularly revealing.
Placing politics aside though, I chose to focus on the UN’s figures because if we really stand a chance to combat human trafficking, it will require global cooperation of the kind the UN was created to foster.
NEXT POST IN THIS SERIES: What actions are currently being taken to combat human trafficking? Who are the main players? What strategies have enjoyed success/ fallen short thus far?
National newspapers have been full of anti-UN and especially anti-Kofi Annan editorials recently. Most have been written by people who don’t have even a minimal understanding of how the UN works. As a student of international relations, reading these absurd editorials makes me want to tear my hair out in clumps as I come across factual error after factual error, and alarmist statements galore.
The UN is corrupt! The UN steals our tax money! The MDGs are a way to impose communism on the world! The UN is eroding our sovereignty! The UN is stealing our national parks! Kofi Annan is an anti-Semite!
What a load of you-know-what.
Thankfully, some papers are still willing to print pro-UN (or at least balanced for pete’s sake!) editorials. Here’s a great one from the Christian Science Monitor. It almost makes up for the fact that the CSW printed an astonishingly ignorant anti-UN piece just before it.
Feeding the hungry and saving lives, the UN is a blessing
It provides the guiding vision, framework, and influence in implementing public policies for the global good.
By Salil Shetty
CAMBRIDGE, ENGLAND
Every few years, the United Nations is declared dead. The reality,
however, is that I cannot remember when the UN has been more in the
center of the news and public debate. The need for the UN is felt the
most when there is a crisis that goes beyond national boundaries, and
you would all agree that we have had no shortage of those in recent
times, whether it is 9/11 or Iraq or the tsunami.The facts are in. The UN has fed more than 100 million hungry people
in the past five years. It has saved millions of lives through its
response to deadly diseases such as AIDS and malaria. It averted a much
bigger humanitarian disaster after the 2005 Pakistani earthquake. It
works to ensure that women have contraceptives, healthcare and, most
important, dignity. It takes care of millions of refugees. It has
improved agriculture and food security. And it has boosted global
literacy levels.Above all, the UN provides the guiding vision, framework, and peer
pressure in implementing public policies for the global good. Take the
Millennium Development Goals. The world is united around these eight
goals – to be achieved by 2015 – to combat poverty, disease,
illiteracy, and environmental degradation.And then there is the much more difficult work the UN does to
protect and promote human rights and to improve governance and
democracies. UN peacekeeping forces are working in some of the most
difficult settings across the world, from Lebanon to Haiti. And don’t
forget what the UN has done to stop the proliferation of weapons of
mass destruction.How much does all this cost? Less than $1.5 billion per year – less than the cost of the New York Police Department.
Let us not forget that the UN was built on the debris of two world
wars that took millions of lives in the first half of the 20th century.
The second half of the 20th century was not without problems, but we
have had far fewer conflicts. Consider this: There were 40 percent
fewer conflicts in the past decade alone, life expectancy has gone up
everywhere, diseases such as polio have virtually disappeared, and we
have more democratically elected governments than ever before. Has this
all happened because of the UN? Of course not. But the UN has played a
crucial role.This has happened in spite of the fact that the UN has no real
power. The UN cannot tax, regulate, or arrest, and it has no army.Nobody would suggest that the UN is perfect. But we have to remember
that the UN is a club, and, like any club, it is as strong as its
members want it or allow it to be. As clubs go, it’s a pretty
attractive one. Every country in the world that could become a member
has become one.If you ask indigenous people or the lowest caste groups, they would
say that without the UN and its human rights instruments, they would be
decimated. If you ask the people or leaders in poor countries, they
will tell you that despite all its imperfections, the UN is the only
international institution where they have at least some voice.The need for the UN is only growing. Unilateralism is increasingly
recognized as a recipe for disaster. Global challenges need
multilateral global solutions.Of course, there are many things that need to be fixed in the UN.
Citizens must be more directly represented by the UN. We cannot have
veto powers and permanent representation in the Security Council for
World War II victors. A lot of administrative reform is also required.
We have to stop the bullying and systematic undermining of the
proceedings in the UN by major powers and some minority outliers.
Discussions on radical reforms to the UN are at an advanced stage. This
is the time for all those who believe in multilateralism and the role
of a democratized UN at the center of it to support this process.•
Salil Shetty directs the UN Millennium Campaign.
The Better World Campaign has the transcript and video.
Here’s a snippet:
You Americans did so much, in the last century, to build an effective multilateral system, with the United Nations at its heart. Do you need it less today, and does it need you less, than 60 years ago?
Surely not. More than ever today Americans, like the rest of humanity, need a functioning global system through which the world’s peoples can face global challenges together. And in order to function, the system still cries out for far-sighted American leadership, in the Truman tradition.
I hope and pray that the American leaders of today, and tomorrow, will provide it.
So do I.
UN Dispatch has a great post about an article on UN peacekeeping written by (of all people) Peter Beinart in (of all publications) The New Republic. I checked the article out, and, while I may not have a great personal impression of Beinart (he did something nasty at a function I helped organize in DC this year), he makes excellent points, and emphasizes, as too few American writers do, how much good the UN actually does.
From UN Dispatch:
He hits all the main points. As a result of Iraq, says Beinart, Americans may have a declining appetite for ambitious nation building projects. However, the United Nations is poised to fill that gap. As Beinart notes, the UN has a capacity to oversee complex nation/peace building operations that is unparalleled by any government on its own; long serving expert staff in areas as diverse as justice sector development and election management makes the UN uniquely suited to take on these tasks in societies emerging from conflict.
Peacekeepers are the core of these kinds of operations. And perhaps the one point that Beinart could have emphasized more forcefully is the gap between the demand for peacekeepers worldwide and the financial resources available to the United Nations to oversee their deployment. The Department of Peace Keeping Operations is forced to maintain the current level of peacekeepers around the world and prepare for new
missions without ever experiencing an increase in its budget commensurate to the new operations the Security Council authorizes.Complicating matters is that the single largest financial donor to peacekeeping operations, the United States, is constantly in arrears. The United States has agreed to pay 27% of the costs of peacekeepers around the globe, but it never makes that amount in full. For FY 2007, it is estimated that the United States will be close to $400 million in arrears.
These backlogs come at a time when the United States is increasingly looking to peacekeeping operations for world conflict zones. For example, just yesterday Ambassador Bolton raised the prospect of a UN peacekeeping mission in Somalia. People can debate the merits of sending blue helmets to Somalia (for the record, the prominent NGO The International Crisis Group cautions against this approach) but if
peacekeepers for Somalia are approved, this would be the fourth mission the Security Council will have authorized since August. The Security Council already approved missions for Lebanon, Darfur, and East Timor, which if implemented in full would increase the number of blue helmets across the globe by 50%.
Financially supporting in full peacekeeping operations is critical. It is the only way that major powers, the United States included, can maximize the UN’s share of the burden of maintaining peace and security
throughout the globe.
