Book Description

Abandoning UNESCO, Abandoning America's Global Leadership: How America's Withdrawal Signals the End of Multilateral Leadership

In this groundbreaking analysis, Dr. Naim Tahir Baig delivers a comprehensive examination of America's tumultuous eight-decade relationship with UNESCO—a pattern of engagement and abandonment that has become emblematic of the nation's broader retreat from multilateral leadership. Through meticulous research and unprecedented access to diplomatic sources, this work chronicles the United States' three withdrawals from the organization it helped found in 1945, culminating in President Trump's 2025 announcement that marked the final severing of ties with one of the world's most important cultural and educational institutions.

Dr. Baig reveals how America's cyclical abandonment of UNESCO—first under Reagan in 1984, then Trump in 2018, and again in 2025—represents far more than disputes over Palestinian membership or budgetary concerns. This pattern reflects a fundamental transformation in American foreign policy philosophy, from the idealistic multilateralism of the post-World War II era to the transactional unilateralism that has increasingly defined America's global engagement. Each withdrawal has systematically weakened American influence while strengthening strategic competitors, particularly China, which has emerged as UNESCO's dominant force during periods of American absence.

The book provides an insider's view of the diplomatic machinations, personal conflicts, and ideological battles that have shaped U.S.-UNESCO relations, from Archibald MacLeish's visionary founding preamble to Audrey Azoulay's desperate attempts to prevent America's final departure. Through vivid storytelling and rigorous analysis, Dr. Baig demonstrates how domestic political calculations have consistently overridden strategic foreign policy interests, leaving America increasingly isolated from the very institutions it created to maintain global leadership.

This work serves as both a definitive history of U.S.-UNESCO relations and a broader meditation on the decline of American multilateral engagement. As China fills the vacuum left by American withdrawal and sets global standards for artificial intelligence, education, and cultural preservation, Dr. Baig argues that America's abandonment of UNESCO represents a microcosm of its broader abdication of global leadership—with consequences that will reverberate for generations to come.