[ti:What Effect Will Cuts to UN Peacekeeping Have?] [by:www.51voa.com] [00:00.00]更多听力请访问51VOA.COM [00:01.92]One of the foreign policy goals of United States President [00:06.59]Donald Trump's administration [00:09.08]has been to reform United Nations peacekeeping. [00:14.00]The administration says that the U.N. peacekeeping missions [00:18.60]should cut costs and that the U.S. should pay less for them. [00:24.64]Earlier this year, the U.N. announced it would cut its budget by $600 million. [00:32.56]Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., [00:36.88]supported the announcement. [00:39.44]She said, "We're just getting started." [00:43.48]Vice President Mike Pence has been critical of the U.N.'s peacekeeping missions. [00:50.52]In September, he told the U.N. Security Council that peacekeeping missions [00:56.44]should be more efficient and need to do a better job. [01:01.44]Paul Williams is a professor at George Washington University's [01:06.28]Elliott School of International Affairs. [01:10.24]He said that it is a good idea to find ways to cut costs. [01:15.88]However, he noted, blanket cuts can make it more difficult to keep soldiers safe. [01:24.08]Fifteen U.N. peacekeeping missions are ongoing around the world, [01:29.36]including eight in Africa. [01:32.44]The United States provides 28 percent of the U.N. peacekeeping budget. [01:39.08]That is the most of any country. [01:42.80]China is second, providing 10 percent of the budget. [01:48.00]Williams says the United States has a legal obligation [01:52.76]to pay 28 percent of the peacekeeping budget. [01:56.94]The U.S. has pushed to reduce the total budget [02:01.20]in order to decrease the amount it has to pay. [02:05.52]The peacekeeping budget is now $7.3 billion. [02:11.56]To reduce costs, the U.N. must either close missions or reduce operations. [02:19.04]Carrying out missions with a smaller budget [02:22.32]could mean cutting personnel or logistical support. [02:27.40]Both choices concern Williams. [02:31.00]He said U.N. peacekeepers already operate with few resources. [02:37.04]In early December, an attack in the Democratic Republic of Congo [02:42.60]killed 14 Tanzanian peacekeepers and five Congolese soldiers. [02:49.00]The attack showed the risks faced by U.N. peacekeeping missions. [02:55.04]The mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo will likely face more difficulties. [03:01.96]That is because the country's president, Joseph Kabila, has refused to step down, [03:08.86]even though he has reached his two-term limit. [03:12.39]Aditi Gorur is director of the Protecting Civilians [03:17.43]in Conflict Program at The Stimson Center, [03:21.00]a research group in Washington DC. [03:24.96]Gorur notes that some U.N. missions have already had large reductions. [03:31.36]"A big part of the motivation for those cuts [03:34.80]was pressure from the U.S. government," she said. [03:38.68]Gorur worries that reductions are not well planned [03:43.44]and "the cuts come first and then the strategy comes later." [03:49.00]She notes that rising levels of "local intercommunal violence" [03:53.80]will likely continue in places like the Democratic Republic of Congo. [04:00.12]Williams said that, while some things can be done better with the same budget, [04:06.04]cuts can place added pressure on peacekeepers. [04:10.56]I'm John Russell. 更多听力请访问51VOA.COM