"In an article Monday in Foreign Policy magazine, former U.N. Ambassadors Madeleine Albright, John Negroponte, and Thomas Pickering call for the U.S. to pay its arrears to the United Nations to 'regain credibility and moral authority.'...
But the article is misleading in places and wrong in its assumptions...
The U.S. withholds funding for specific reasons-to advance reforms, improve accountability, and oppose objectionable practices, among others. Few countries share U.S. concerns on these matters and withholding can leverage reform or at least signal objection to policies.
For instance, the U.N. would not have had an inspector general equivalent absent U.S. withholding. The U.N. created the Office of Oversight Services in direct response to U.S. withholding of funds...
History shows that financial leverage can help the U.S. secure reforms. If they're smart, the administration of now-President Biden and Congress will not squander the leverage provided by U.S. arrears..."