Secretary-General Kofi Annan, have taken the United States to task for sometimes failing to recognize that "true international leadership depends on common values and a shared view of the future" (2004, June 10, p. NA). Journalist Fareed Zakaria accused the United States of using a double standard, adopting a multilateral approach where it serves American interests, such as in promoting international trade agreements, and pursuing a unilateralist approach to most problems involving national security and human rights (2004, May 10, p. 33). In defending the first Bush administration's record, its nominee for the post of UN Ambassador, John Bolton said in the fall of 2000 that the use of force is the "most important
[challenge] that any state faces, [and that] limiting their decisions or transferring this to another authority is ultimately central to the diminution of sovereignty and the advance of global governance," a state of affairs which no self-respecting great power can tolerate (Douglas, 2005, April 10, p. NA). As a leading advocate of unilateralism in international affairs, the Chicago Tribune said in an editorial, dated September 30, 2004,
"as practiced on the world stage, multilateralism too often is a sly dodge of any responsibility to other human beings" (Sudanese blood, 1004, October 2, p. K 2694).
Record of the UN on the Darfur Crisis
The efforts by the UN to come to terms with the Darfur Crisis have in general and despite some progress, have fallen far short of effective international action. According to the human rights organization Save Darfur, "two years into the crisis, the western Sudanese region of Darfur is acknowledged to be a humanitarian and human rights tragedy of the first order . . . The international community is deeply divided --perhaps paralyzed--over what to do next in Darfur" (Situation, 2005, May 18).
On January 9, 2005, with the assistance of UN and American mediators, a peace deal was...