The Foreign Service Journal, September 2006

would have to invent it (presumably we would do a better structuring job the second time around). From a per- sonal perspective, my professional involvement with the U.N. Force on Cyprus in the 1960s and 1970s was very positive. The UNFICYP was mil- itarily and politically effective, at least in its early decades. However, that was 30 years ago. The intervening decades have witnessed serious deteri- oration in the U.N.’s capacity for effec- tive and corruption-free activity on the world stage. Something must be done. Reforming the U.N. to end corrup- tion should not be an issue agitating the red-blue divide in U.S. domestic politics. Surely we can agree on a bipartisan basis that this is a priority. Former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker was right when he stated at his last press conference as chair- man of the Volcker Commission that the U.N. itself had the largest stake of all in ending the abuses. As he pointed out, continued corruption will eventually erode U.S. public support for the organization — with- out which it cannot survive. Thomas Boyatt, an FSO from 1959 until 1985, served as ambassador to Colombia and Upper Volta (now Burkino Faso) and chargé d’affaires in Chile, among many other postings. Currently the treasurer of AFSA’s political action committee, AFSA- PAC, he has in the past been AFSA’s president, vice president and treasur- er, as well as serving as a retiree repre- sentative. After retirement Amb. Boyatt was vice president of a large company, president of a small compa- ny, and a trustee of Princeton University. He is currently president of the Foreign Affairs Council and continues to lecture, teach and consult. S E P T E M B E R 2 0 0 6 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 21 S P E A K I N G O U T Neither the president nor Congress should flinch from withholding funds on a targeted basis as leverage to correct U.N. abuses.