The United Nations is struggling to reaffirm its raison d'etre as the vanguard of international peace and security amid the threat from the U.S. Trump administration to cut its funding and the continued inability of the Security Council to take collective action.
The U.S. has indicated that it will slash its U.N. funding by as much as 50 percent to help offset the $5.4 billion increase proposed for its defense budget by President Donald Trump. The main target of its belt-tightening drive is the U.N.'s peacekeeping operations which deploy nearly 100,000 troops and police in 16 missions throughout the world with an annual budget of close to $8 billion.
As a permanent member of the Security Council, the U.S. foots 28 percent of the bill, or roughly $2.2 billion, more than the contributions from the next three largest donors — China, Japan and Germany — combined. If contributions to the U.N. regular budget and its various agencies such as UNICEF and UNHCR are included, the annual U.S. spending for the U.N. as a whole reaches $5 billion.