布什政府轻视联合国种族大会招致抨击-英语课

时间：2019-01-31 作者：英语课 分类：VOA2001-国际风云（5）

英语课

US Snub of Racism 1 Conference Sparks Criticism of Bush Administration

Jim Malone

Washington

1 Sep 2001

U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell's decision not to attend the international racism conference in South Africa has sparked renewed criticism of the Bush Administration and what is 1)perceived as a "go-it-alone" approach to international issues.

Bush Administration critics say Secretary of State Powell's decision to skip the U.N. conference in Durban is the latest example of an administration bent 2 on pursuing a 3)solitary course in international relations.

The French foreign minister this week 4)condemned what he called "high-handed American unilateralism." A recent 5)editorial in The Guardian 3 newspaper in London accused the Bush Administration of what it called "6)reckless, 7)unilateralist behavior" on arms control and environmental issues.

Criticism of President Bush began to mount in March with his decision to withdraw from the Kyoto Protocol 4 on global warming. It 8)intensified with the announcement that the United States was abandoning a United Nations draft accord on enforcement of a treaty limiting 9)biological warfare 6.

In recent weeks, Democratic congressional leaders, including Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, have also 10)focused on what they regard as a dangerous unilateralist approach. "Instead of 11)asserting our leadership, we are 12)abdicating it," he says. "Instead of shaping international agreements to serve our interests, we have removed ourselves from a position to shape them at all."

President Bush rejects the notion that the United States has adopted an across the board go-it-alone 13)strategy and says he will gladly support international treaties that are in the U.S. interest. "We have put our foreign policy on sound footing," he says. "We are strengthening our relationships with our allies and moving to build a world that trades more freely."

The criticism has some political 14)analysts 7 concerned about the president's international image.

Martin Schram is a commentator 8 with the Scripps-Howard News Service and a regular guest on VOA's Issues in the News Program. "[It is] probably good 15)domestic politics but I don't believe that is going to be seen as being good world leadership," he says. "The problem for him may be down the road, if push comes to shove, and people look at what is America's role as a world leader, and that is what I think the concern really ought to be. Because a world leader has to lead, and you don't lead by just walking away from a treaty."

But many others are speaking out in defense 9 of the president, saying his first responsibility is to act in the interests of the United States.

Ted 5 Carpenter monitors international and defense issues for the Cato Institute, a public policy research organization here in Washington.

He says there is a strong case to be made for the United States objecting to both the Kyoto treaty and the U.N. draft accord on biological weapons. "For instance, the Biological Weapons Convention Protocol is 16)fundamentally flawed," he says. "Not only would it fail to include most of the countries that would be the most likely 17)candidates to develop and use biological weapons, the intrusive 10 inspection 11 18)provisions are virtually a 19)blueprint for commercial or industrial 20)espionage against America's bio-tech industry where America is light years ahead of most competitors."

Analysts also point out that the political 21)fallout of the president's decisions on international treaties is playing out differently at home than it is abroad.

Stuart Rothenberg is publisher of a political newsletter here in Washington. He says in some ways the president may actually be benefiting at home from the criticism being leveled at him from abroad. "The president is on pretty firm ground because the Europeans just have a very different view of where they want society and politics to go," he says. "But at the moment, I think particularly the Europeans have gone out of their way to mock the president so openly that it really invites Americans to defend their chief executive."

The administration's next challenge on international cooperation may come in mid-September when a special United Nations General Assembly 22)session on children convenes 12 in New York. A State Department spokesman said this week that U.S. officials expect to take part in the session despite concerns that the final declaration may express support for 23)abortion 13 counseling services.

Because of the president's opposition 14 to abortion, the administration has cut off U.S. aid to international family planning agencies that provide abortion services.

Analysts view the special U.N. session as a test of whether the administration is willing to work with international leaders or prefers to go it alone, risking further criticism from abroad.