A who’s WHO of groups to quit

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. The U.S. formally ended its membership in the World Health Organization last month, a move President Trump set in motion immediately on taking office.

This is by far the largest international organization Washington has quit. The administration recently announced plans to withdraw from 66 other international entities. Mr.

Trump has begun an overdue re-evaluation of America’s relationship with an expanding, opaque web of international organizations, but the recent round of cuts was broader than it was deep. Still, in a sign of real realignment in State Department attitudes, even organizations with noble-sounding names weren’t spared. Previous presidents wouldn’t consider quitting the Global Counterterrorism Forum or the International Institute for Justice and the Rule of Law, because they sound nice—even though they accomplish little.

More than a dozen of the exited international organizations dealt with environmental issues, a symptom of significant overlap in their missions. Others, like the Global Forum on Migration and Development and the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe, promote policy agendas largely aligned with European left-wing political values. The United Nations Program for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women became notorious for its slow response to Hamas’s sexual violence on Oct.

7, 2023, though it didn’t miss Amal Clooney’s birthday. International organizations are where accountability goes to die. They are even further removed from voters than national governments are.