Confirmation delays stymie Biden’s efforts to boost US multilateralism

U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration has made major efforts to rejoin international organizations and reassert its leadership at the United Nations and other multilateral institutions — including through enhanced State Department work — after his predecessor shunned multilateralism.

But partisan politics in the Senate have kept key posts at many of those institutions vacant — an “unreasonable blockade” that has “left a vacuum in U.S. influence abroad” and is “hurting our foreign policy,” said Rep. Joaquin Castro, a Democrat from Texas, during a House Foreign Affairs subcommittee hearing Thursday.

The Biden administration has worked “vigorously” to reengage on the multilateral stage in an effort to ensure that the U.N. system and international organizations remain strong and able to uphold the values of democracy, justice, and human rights, said Ambassador Erica Barks-Ruggles, a senior official at the Bureau of International Organization Affairs in the State Department.

Under the Biden administration, the State Department — with congressional support — has created an Office of Multilateral Strategy and Personnel to lead work on strategy and implementation of engagement in multilateral organizations.

The office has several focuses, including tracking election efforts at international organizations and managing election campaigns for U.S. candidates seeking key posts in those organizations — such as Doreen Bogdan-Martin in the upcoming election for International Telecommunication Union secretary-general — according to Barks-Ruggles.

While that election is a priority, she said the State Department is also supporting U.S. candidates for other jobs at the United Nations — from senior posts to the junior professional officer program.

And the office is staffing up, with the goal of eventually having 15 members. The personnel will be critical for standing up a new tech-based data-tracking system aimed at helping with decision-making, elections, and transparency efforts at international organizations, especially those where the U.S. is the largest funder, Barks-Ruggles said. Office staffers will also help coordinate U.S. efforts to scrutinize language in U.N. resolutions and documents, as well as to contest anything that runs counter to the country’s interests and values, she added.

U.S. engagement is critical to ensure greater transparency and accountability for U.N. institutions, as well as to help improve bodies that have problems, Barks-Ruggles said.

Without U.S. presence, countries such as Russia and China could step in to fill the void, she said.

“It’s important for us to be present, and it’s important for us to be leading,” Barks-Ruggles said.

Despite the administration’s efforts, partisan politics in the Senate have delayed confirmation for a number of key nominees to U.N. posts and for leadership of State Department divisions.

“I’m happy to see that there’s strong bipartisan support … to advance our influence within the United Nations,” said Castro, who chairs a subcommittee on international development, international organizations, and global corporate social impact.

But, he added, the most immediate thing that Congress — and specifically the Senate — can do to advance such efforts is to act on a number of languishing confirmations being held up by Republican Sens. Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley.

Castro said he hopes they will allow the nominees to be voted on.

Last week, the Better World Campaign and the United Nations Association of the United States of America — advocacy organizations focused on U.S. engagement at the U.N. — sent a letter asking Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to expedite the confirmation of such nominees.

Nominees awaiting confirmation include Ambassador Michele Sison to be the assistant secretary of state for international organization affairs, Bathsheba Crocker to be ambassador to the U.N. in Geneva, Chris Lu to be ambassador to the U.N. for management and reform, Lisa Carty to be ambassador to the U.N. Economic and Social Council, Chesley Sullenberger to be ambassador to the International Civil Aviation Organization, and Ambassador Laura Holgate to be ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency.

“More generally, the lack of top level political leadership @UN is limiting U.S. capacity to shape multilateral diplomacy strategically. It's hard for U.S. to engage on global issues if it doesn't have the right personnel. Other countries see drift,” tweeted Richard Gowan, the U.N. director at the International Crisis Group, on Thursday.