The United Nations is bloated, duplicative, and inefficient, according to U.N. Ambassador Mike Waltz. But despite its flaws, he thinks the organization is worth saving.
“You need one place in the world where everybody can come and talk, and at least talk,” he told the Daily Signal in a phone call from the 2026 United Nations General Assembly in New York City. “I’ve learned as a diplomat, especially in some of these war-torn environments with 1,000-year-old animosities, just getting both sides in the room is often a huge first step.”
Waltz has seen the benefit of the U.N. in action with the war between Ukraine and Russia.
“At the beginning of the president’s term, there was no one talking from either side,” he said. “Now we’ve had multiple rounds of pulling them together, and we’ll see. Hopefully, by the end of this year, we can get both [Volodymyr] Zelenskyy and [Vladimir] Putin at least in the same room to begin a conversation, so the president’s willing to engage anyone anywhere to try to craft a deal for peace, and for all of its flaws, the U.N. is a key place to do that.”
The same is true of the Iran conflict, he said. President Donald Trump said U.S. and Iranian officials held talks on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly amid the two countries’ more than six-monthslong war.
“It’s the only place where you get 150 prime ministers, presidents, world leaders, finance ministers all here at the same time, and the interesting thing about it is, you can have those conversations even with our adversaries,” he said. “We’ll see how it unfolds.”
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“It’s notable that it was the first contact since the ceasefire with Iran, since they violated it by attacking international shipping and fell apart,” he said. “But it was a good kind of reengagement. I’ll let the president decide where it goes next.”
The U.N. also helps with burden-sharing, part of “America First” foreign policy, Waltz said. A U.N. force has gone into Gaza, preventing the U.S. from having to send troops. U.N. troops are taking care of gangs in Haiti to prevent that instability from spreading.
“We are a generous nation,” he said. “We do help out people in need in situations like earthquakes and tsunamis and famines, and there’s a role for that as well.”
Waltz has been working to reduce the U.N. budget, slashing $1 billion in the past six months.
“The U.N.’s done nothing but grow for 80 years,” he said. “We’ve seen a tripling of their budget in the last 25 years. I would argue strongly we haven’t seen a tripling of peace break out around the world.”
The U.S. is trying to return the U.N. to the basics.
“We came in here determined to reform and and drive efficiencies,” Waltz said, “and we’ve by all accounts, achieved some historic success.”
As the U.N. searches for a new secretary general, Waltz said he wants the role to be filled by someone who takes after NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte.
“We need that same kind of leadership for the U.N.,” he said, “so we’re looking for the right leader from anywhere in the world, man, woman. Really, we’re focused on merit and to get this organization really involved in ending wars, bringing peace, and helping President Trump in that regard on the world stage.”
Many more cost-saving reforms are to come at the U.N., Waltz said.
“The average U.N. civil servant makes 120% of what an American civil servant makes,” he said. “The main U.N. locations around the world are in some of the most expensive cities in the world: New York, Geneva, and Vienna. Yet the focus of a lot of the U.N.’s work is in some of the most difficult and developing and war-torn places in the world.”
“Let’s get people out to where they’re needed, not in these plush cities in the United States and Europe,” he said.
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