While the body of the report outlines a comprehensive series of recommendations for reorganization and strengthening of the UN's capability to perform peacekeeping missions, the essential message calls upon Security Council members to adopt greater responsibility with respect to peacekeeping mandates and resources. The general American public has not been seriously enough engaged on the issue of the UN and its role in American foreign policy. The country's leadership elite has bought on too quickly to the argument that the public does not care, despite the persistent evidence of public opinion polls to the contrary. In any case, American history is replete with evidence the public is often not engaged until asked to be so. Where this leaves us all at the moment is hard to tell.
Reform is on the agenda, and some progress is being made.
But significant reform requires more than grudging formal agreement from the other members of the global organization and that is proving hard enough to get. Reform of the UN may be viewed as a passing question of little real interest. But equally obviously, it would be desirable to have the option of multilateral action in cooperation with other countries. NATO is the most prominent example of this type of capability, developed in another era, but proving to be of continued utility today and possibly tomorrow. Working with and through the United Nations falls into that category of potential options, but only if both the UN's image and its capability are refurbished.