Strengthening International Institutions

International institutions provide a venue to strengthen relationships between countries and facilitate global cooperation. Primarily, they should serve as venues to mediate conflicts and to decrease human suffering by preventing less-wealthy states from experiencing economic crisis and destitution. Organizations that have enforced austerity measures on its members in the past may still have a role to play going forward, but austerity is not an effective economic approach and causes undue harm to vulnerable communities and populations both at home and abroad.

The United States should:

• Never impose austerity measures as a condition of economic support.

• Uphold and further develop standards by which global economic institutions are legally accountable for their actions.

• Participate fully in international organizations, particularly the United Nations and the United Nations Security Council. This means paying dues and applying U.S. values evenly in these fora and avoiding acting on convenience. Good faith efforts to improve conflictual relationships may create the necessary space to prevent the UNSC process from being a dead end.