After five long years, it just couldn’t afford to be absent any longer: On Monday, the United States formally asked to rejoin the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The US claims it needs a place back at the table, where China has had plenty of time to exert undue influence on some of the most hot-button issues of our time, including education and the future of artificial intelligence (AI).
The American readmission application capped a long list of promises made by US President Joe Biden to reverse his predecessor Donald Trump’s crusade against a string of international bodies he did not feel the US needed to be a part of, including the Paris Climate Agreement and the United Nations Human Rights Council.
