Two speakers in Wednesday night’s debate about U.N. effectiveness stood on opposite sides of the issue, but both criticized U.S. foreign policy at least somewhat.

Speaking in the near-full McCormick Tribune Center, Gareth Evans, president of the International Crisis Group, and Richard Williamson, former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for International Organizations, debated the ability of the United Nations to make the world safer. Americans for Informed Democracy organized the debate.

Speaking against the United Nations’ ability to secure the world, Evans acknowledged that the organization was created to keep the world safe.

“Unfortunately (the United Nations was) mugged by the reality of the Cold War,” he said.

The violence in Somalia, Rwanda and the United Nations’ “pathetically inadequate” response in Bosnia were evidence of U.N. failure to reach this goal, Evans said.

“Genocide happened with absolute impunity,” he said.

Williamson agreed the organization had many weak points but said it was still a positive force in the world.

Citing his experiences in Bosnia and Afghanistan, Williamson said the United Nations was making the world a better place. Because of the United Nations., weapons of mass destruction are harder to acquire and financing for terrorists was restricted, he said.

He said U.N. contributions follows Sept. 11, 2001 were significant, a point with which Evans agreed.

“The strength of the U.N. is its weakness,” Williamson said. “Its strength is its universal organization and its weakness is its universal organization.”

The United Nations is powerful and changes the world, Evans said, but added that this power is only a shadow of what its “founding fathers” imagined. Evans said this could be remedied by changing the way the organization operates.

The organization’s 60th anniversary this September would be the perfect opportunity to work on these challenges, he said.

“I don’t think we have any alternative but to get this right,” Evans said. “2005 is a make-or- break year.”

In rebuttals, Evans and Williamson discussed the United States’ sense of unilateralism that some say undermines U.N. power.

“I think it is in the national self-interest (of the United States) to work like hell to enforce (the United Nation’s power),” Evans said.

Weinberg junior Elizabeth Schwartz said Evans’ comment that U.S. supremacy would not last was enlightening.

“I found it very interesting that America has to plan for when it is not the only superpower,” Schwartz said.

Cass Chen, an Education sophomore, said it was nice to hear Evans, a former Australian foreign minister, criticize the United States.

“I thought the way Evans framed the way the U.S. could use its leadership as a superpower was refreshing,” she said.

Williamson served as ambassador and U.S. representative to the U.N. Commission on Human Rights in 2004.

Evans is president and CEO of the International Crisis Group, an independent, multinational non-governmental organization.

Americans for Informed Democracy, the Stanley Foundation the United Nations Foundation sponsored the event.

Reach Deepa Seetharaman at [email protected].