One of the constant themes in the post-World War II world has been the American-led undermining of the United Nations. The antagonism between the United States and the United Nations mirrors the antagonism between the economic elite and the poor or between employers and workers. As more and more colonies became independent nations following the end of World War II, the electoral power in the United Nations passed from the economically advanced nations to the far more numerous poor and lesser developed nations. That is because the UN is based upon the principle of ‘one-nation-one-vote’.

The American response has been to starve the United Nations by refusing to pay its financial obligations to the UN and to create exclusive multilateral bodies that have duplicated and then superceded United Nations Initiatives.

When the United Nations tried to launch the International Trade Association, the United States instead supported the General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs – which ultimately became the World Trade Organization. The UN’s ITA was supposed to govern international trade with rules governing employment practices and restrictive business and investment practices. Because of American opposition, the ITA never got off the ground.

Similarly, when the UN proposed a Special Fund for Economic Development, the U.S. created and funded an alternate structure called the International Development Association as a branch of the World Bank.

Most critically, the United States was the driving force behind the creation of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund – the two organizations that displaced the role of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP).

All of the critical resources committed to international aid and economic development therefore passed from the broad democratic control of the United Nations to the elite, "one-dollar-one-vote" institutions created by the U.S.