When Unilateralism Is Invisible: A Different Perspective on the Oil-for-Food Scandal

Abstract

The United States has long had an ambivalent relation to multilateralism. This has been particularly evident in the claims made by the United States against the United Nations regarding the oil-for-food program. These accusations maintained that the UN has been corrupt and incompetent, and that the lack of accountability allowed Saddam Hussein to engage in extensive smuggling and kickbacks. Some of these claims turned out to be well grounded, but many were not. There was, in fact, an elaborate structure of monitoring and transparency for the program. Many of the claims made against “the United Nations” actually concerned decisions by the Security Council and its members, including the United States and the UK, not the Secretariat or the UN agencies. KEYWORDS: multilateralism, oil-for-food program (OFFP), accountability, Office of the Iraq Programme, Iraq.