Circles and Squares

The Korean Foundation for Advanced Studies 한국고등교육재단 again promotes a reactionary anti-internationalist agenda by bringing in fringe figures to advocate for positions in international relations.

This time we have on May 10 (2-4 PM), around the same time as the Korea-China-Japan Summit, an American scholar by the name of Thomas Weiss giving a talk entitled “A World Without the UN.”

Thomas Weiss https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_G._Weiss is a professor at the City University of New York, and a quick search of the internet reveals that he is frequently trotted out to promote armed intervention and to attack the foundations of the United Nations at public events. Weiss has been a big advocate for the use of military force to respond to “humanitarian” crises, or “humanitarian intervention.” Such arguments are a perfect fit with the militarism that has driven the United States into a series of illegal military actions.

The promotional material in English reads:

“The United Nations is seen by many as a rigid bureaucracy without sparkle, wit, or creativity. The general public – graciously stimulated by the mass media – sees a traveling circus, a talk shop, and paper-pushing. This is a very uneven view of the world organization. The story of the last seven decades is incomplete and misleading without a discussion of its goals and achievements, including its intellectual leadership. International organizations live or die by the quality and relevance of the policy ideas that they put forward and support. And it is of the essence to emphasize them – the good, the bad, the ugly. The lecture will spell out the findings of the decade-long UN Intellectual History Project.”

Although no one can disagree with the problems in the United Nations, they are clearly a result of its being starved for funds and manipulated for political purposes by multi-national corporations. Moreover, even at its worst, there is no comparison between the United Nations and militaristic nations (to remain unnamed) engaged in numerous wars of aggression and which would only increase their power if the United Nations was somehow abolished.