Meanwhile, the US, which now sees China as its biggest threat, has been watching more or less blindly on the sidelines as Beijing exerts its influence through some of UNESCO's soft-power vehicles, including the World Heritage Committee.Īlthough the seemingly inoffensive committee is best known for designating and protecting cultural landmarks, Swain said it actually plays a very important role. After the US departure, China did indeed became the largest funder of the compulsory part, "but not on the voluntary part", UNESCO spokesman Matthieu Lamarre said.
UNESCO's budget is split into two parts, in which one consists of obligatory contributions from member states and the other of voluntary funding. It officially left in 2018.īut when the US - which prior to the Palestine issue had been the largest contributor, accounting for around 22 percent of its yearly budget - withdrew altogether, it left a vacuum that China has since been more than happy to fill.Īshok Swain, a professor in Peace and Conflict Research at Uppsala University in Sweden, said, "China has made sure to be there", pointing to the fact that "even the garden at UNESCO's headquarters has been co-funded by a Chinese city". In 2017, Trump announced his country would leave UNESCO altogether, accusing it of anti-Israel bias. The move drew anger from the US and its close ally Israel, and forced Barack Obama's administration to stop its funding of the agency because it was barred by US law to do so at the time. The US pulled out of UNESCO after a long-running dispute over the organisation's decision to admit Palestine as a member in 2011, thereby giving it de facto recognition as a state. You lose something for your influence in the world, but also for your own national interest." "What's happened over the last years meant that UNESCO matters," she said. The decision by the US to rejoin UNESCO was met with resounding applause at its headquarters in Paris, where Director-General Audrey Azoulay described it as an "historic moment" and "an important day for multilateralism". The American readmission application capped a long list of promises made by US President Joe Biden to reverse his predecessor Donald Trump's crusade against a string of international bodies he did not feel the US needed to be a part of, including the Paris Climate Agreement and the United Nations Human Rights Council. The US claims it needs a place back at the table, where China has had plenty of time to exert undue influence on some of the most hot-button issues of our time, including education and the future of artificial intelligence (AI).
After five long years, it just couldn't afford to be absent any longer: On Monday, the United States formally asked to rejoin the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
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