The Emperor of the 21st Century

George W. Bush may not exactly love the United Nations but he wants to get his hands on it.

Flush with his success at getting NATO to become his de facto Foreign Legion in the Global War Without End on Terror, the U.S. president is making moves to have the United Nations put an American in charge of U.N. peacekeeping programmes.

Some U.N. officials are wary of the Bush move. They remember how Washington manipulated the U.N. weapons inspection teams in Iraq to spy on Saddam Hussein. Diplomats and experts are also reported to have questioned whether U.S. control of the peacekeeping remit might help Washington replace the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq with U.N. peacekeepers.

The U.N. has approximately 95,000 peacekeepers in global trouble spots. To this force the U.S. contributes just 335 peacekeepers plus about 300 civilians serving with U.N. missons. The Americans pick up just over a quarter of the annual tab for this peacekeeping force.

The Australian quotes a U.S. official as saying, "We pay the most. It almost goes without saying that, if the Americans are spending the most money on peacekeeping, we should have a say in the management of it."

America already has a big say on peacekeeping efforts by virtue of its powers at the Security Council. This, however, seems to be more about control or at least direction of a sizeable, deployed military force.