"Norming" is the idea that the U.S. should base its decisions on some kind of international consensus, rather than making its decisions as a constitutional democracy The argument is "one nation, one vote," best expressed by one U.S. critic who avers, "The problem with the United States is its devotion to its Constitution over international norms."

Bolton cites as an example the death penalty which has been ruled out by the U.N. and which led to threats of impeachment against South Korea's Ban ki-moon, the Secretary General, when he said each country should decide for itself. (South Korea still has  the death penalty.)

Then there is gun control. During a discussion about the illicit flow of weapons into conflict areas of the world,"We were not going to sign on to any international agreement that prohibits private ownership of guns. I explained that we have a Constitution that precluded any such restrictions. This was treated as an entirely specious notion."

"Although the U.N. is perfectly capable of passing resolutions about the death penalty and gun control -- not to mention smoking -- it has proved utterly incapable, even after 9/11, of agreeing to a definition of terrorism . . . because several member governments think there is a good terrorism and a bad terrorism."

The U.N. Budget Committee voted two to one against effective outside auditing of U.N. programs.

Under the current system, the U.S. pays 22% of the cost of most U.N. agencies, and 27% of peacekeeping costs. We are by far the largest contributor.

"There is one point of view here in America -- a view given expression during the 2004 presidential campaign by Senator Kerry -- holding that American foreign policy should meet some kind of 'global test . . . to demonstrate the legitimacy of its foreign policy decisions by getting  the approval of the U.N. Security Council or some other international body

"The same suggestion will no doubt surface again in the run-up to the November election."