Unilateralism Is U.S.

By Melissa August, Beau Briese, Rhett Butler, Anne Hartshorn, Christina Lewis, Valerie Marchant, Ellin Martens, Ryan Schick, Sora Song, Heather Won Tesoriero, Kadesha Thomas

Sometimes being a megarich hyperpower is just plain lonely. Especially when the entire rest of the world is wrong. And recently that seems to be happening to the U.S. a lot. Below is a list of the global compacts that will have to try to survive without America's John Hancock.

U.N. ACCORD TO ENFORCE THE 1972 BIOLOGICAL WEAPONS CONVENTION July 2001 Abandoning seven years of negotiations, the U.S. rejected the agreement last week, saying that "the draft protocol would put national security and confidential business information at risk."

U.N. CONFERENCE ON SMALL ARMS July 2001 The U.S. threatened to exit a conference on curbing illegal trafficking of small arms and light weapons, objecting to any interference with Americans' right to bear arms. To retain U.S. participation, initial plans were watered down.

KYOTO PROTOCOL March 2001 The Bush Administration abandoned the 1997 climate-control treaty to cut emissions of so-called greenhouse gases linked to global warming, claiming that developing nations got off too easy. Last week 178 countries reached a climate accord anyway.

INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT TREATY January 2001 President-elect Bush refused to ask the Senate to ratify the "flawed" accord establishing the world's first permanent war-crimes tribunal. With the support of 138 other nations, the ICC, based in the Netherlands, may begin operations next year.

COMPREHENSIVE TEST BAN TREATY October 1999 The U.S. Senate rejected ratification of the treaty, designed to prohibit nuclear-weapon development.

LAND MINE BAN TREATY December 1997 121 nations pledged to eliminate antipersonnel land mines, but the U.S. declined, claiming it needed the mines to protect its troops in South Korea.

BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY TREATY June 1992 The U.S. held out on a treaty calling for protection of threatened species and sharing of biotechnological advances, charging that the pact failed to offer patent protection to its bioengineering companies.