By John J. MetzlerShowdowns loom in the new year as New York Republican Congresswoman Elise Stefanik has been nominated to serve as United Nations Ambassador by President-elect Donald Trump.
Should she be approved by the Senate, Rep. Stefanik who has served in the U.S. Congress for a decade representing upstate New York’s 21st Congressional District, will venture to Turtle Bay on New York’s East River to represent the United States at a place where conflict, acrimony and dysfunction abound.
Stefanik will enter the UN at a time, not unlike some of her predecessors such as Daniel Patrick Moynihan or Jeanne Kirkpatrick, or even Nikki Haley when the American agenda and values are under steady attack by authoritarian regimes. It’s the duty of the ambassador to push back and regain the political high ground. But that’s easier said than done in the 193-member multinational body where the perennial Palestinian debate has been supplemented by many other simultaneous combustible global issues from the Korean Peninsula to Ukraine.
A major ground war rages in Europe, the Middle East is in conflict, regional wars and humanitarian crises in Sudan, Syria, and the Sahel, not to mention the greatly expanded role of communist China’s influence and threats to the international order. Navigating the daunting complexities of the current international situation and seeking out diplomatic victories remains an ongoing challenge.
Then there are the issues of mass human rights violations of Afghan women by the Islamic fundamentalist Taliban in the aftermath of the Biden/Harris Administration’s shameful pullout, the churning chaos in Haiti, and the mass illegal migrations into the United States (and many European countries too). Add the perennial undertow of poverty and privation in so many places globally and you begin to see the picture.
Elise Stefanie (40) who entered Congress decade ago as the youngest elected woman, has her work cut out for her. She serves as a senior member of the House Armed Services Committee and the House Intelligence Committee and Chairwoman of the House Republican conference.
Her 21st Congressional District encompasses a huge swath of land encompassing the Adirondack Mountains, Lake Placid and Upstate New York bordering Canada.
A staunch Trump loyalist, Stefanik will press for President Trump’s “Peace through Strength” mandate at a time when it’s sorely needed but will be seriously challenged. As she stated, “The work ahead is immense as we see antisemitism skyrocketing coupled with four years of catastrophically weak U.S. leadership that significantly weakened our national security and diminished our standing in the eyes of both allies and adversaries.”
Viewing the UN she stated, there should be a “complete reassessment of U.S. funding of the United Nations” after the Palestinian Authority attempted to expel Israel from the UN over human rights abuses in Gaza.
Stefanik remains a strong and dedicated supporter of Israel and a fierce critic of Hamas, Hizbullah and their Iranian paymasters.
Her debating skills were honed as a Harvard University graduate. Though a Catholic, she is a strong and dedicated defender of Israel and moreover a vocal critic of the vile anti-Semitism which has plagued the U.S. over the past few years, especially since the horrific Hamas attacks on Israel of October 7, 2023.
Stefanik gained national acclaim last December for her tough questioning of some university presidents during widely televised Congressional hearings on anti-Semitism. Following the hearings, University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill and Harvard President Claudine Gay resigned from their posts amid widespread disgust for waffling in their answers to Stefanik’s searing questions. Her actions against anti-Semitism stand as a singular achievement supporting religious freedoms and genuine academic discourse.
On Human Rights issues, she’s poised as a powerful critic of both China and Russia. But contrary to the days of Moynihan, or Kirkpatrick, now a generation ago, there’s a far more dangerous political dynamic at the UN, one that Nikki Haley had to navigate daily.
The powerful fifteen-member Security Council where the United States is among the five permanent members Communist China, France, Russia and the United Kingdom remains politically deadlocked for a decade.
She has slammed Putin’s invasion and aggression in Ukraine but does not believe in giving the Kyiv government a blank American check.
With the UN’s 80th anniversary looming in 2025, it may be more difficult to challenge budgets never mind the bloated bureaucracy of an organization the U.S. helped create in the aftermath of WWII.
Stefanik proved herself as a tough and erudite individual. She’s the right choice for the UN.
John J. Metzler is a United Nations correspondent covering diplomatic and defense issues. He is the author of Divided Dynamism the Diplomacy of Separated Nations: Germany, Korea, China (2014).
Free Press International
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