The International Criminal Court became operational in July. Washington heaped insult on injury when it vetoed a routine extension of the United Nations' peacekeeping mission in Bosnia in the same month because of the failure to get a blanket and permanent immunity from prosecution of its peacekeepers by the ICC. Stung by fierce criticism from even its diehard European allies, the United States softened its position slightly, and won a 12-month exemption (which can be renewed) for the peacekeepers of all countries that had not ratified the ICC statute.

The vote in the Security Council on this was unanimous -- remarkable because the rest of the world seemed to be as appalled as they were strongly opposed. The Canadians in particular argued that the outcome was a sad day for the U.N.: The damage was not just to the integrity of the court but also to the integrity of treaty negotiations and the credibility of the Security Council itself.

Lloyd Axworthy, who as Canada's foreign minister had been a powerful voice in the campaign to establish the ICC, has cautioned that "the compromise acquiesces to the Security Council's questionable right to amend by interpretation a treaty arrived at in open discussion by representatives of more than 100 nation states in a founding convention."