N.'s peacekeeping operation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo will increase dramatically." As far as current arrears the United States is the largest debtor to the United Nations at 582 million dollars (according to the United States Department of State). What is it that impedes the United states from paying such a small amount of debt in proportion to all the spending allotted every fiscal year? UNA-USA again summarizes the situation, "The United States continues to accrue arrears of about $78 million annually due to the enactment in 1994 of legislation that "caps" the U.S. assessed contribution to U.N. peacekeeping at 25 percent." 1 This indicates that it is not the United States slacking off on its debt, but it is rather a limitation enforced upon the United Nations that the United States is unwilling to carry more than 25 percent of its peacekeeping expenses, even if it means that the United States does not meet its full Official Development Assistance goal.
When one looks at the financial obligations countries make to the United Nations we must note that all countries are equally charged for membership - not a flat fee, but a flat rate of .7 percent their national gross domestic product. The Global Financial Profile Fact Sheet produced by the United Nations states, "4 [next column] Number of donors who have consistently met the 0.7 per cent target. (Denmark, Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden; Luxembourg met the target in 2000)." It is fairly safe to say that if only four countries out of the 191 members of the United Nations have met this goal that the United States should not be the only one receiving negative impact from this situation of debt being owed to the United Nations. In fact, the United Nations Global Financial Profile Fact Sheet also states that of the 150.4 billion dollars owed by least developed countries, only 4.4 billion dollars was paid towards those debts in 1998.
