The World: Who Pays What at the U.N.

AT the United Nations this week, the 132 member nations of the General Assembly Budgetary Committee will vote on a volatile issue: a request from the U.S. to reduce its contribution to the organization's regular budget from 31.5% to 25% beginning in 1974. Should the committee vote no and should Washington persist in its announced intention, the U.S. could theoretically lose its vote in the General Assembly after being in arrears for two years (although in the 1960s when the Russians and French refused to pay for peacekeeping operations they disapproved of, they still kept their vote).

The debate, which concerns only...