Here amidst the town's movers and shakers, and only a stone's throw from the sprawling and ever-expanding headquarters of the World Bank, the United Nations Information Center (UNIC) conducts its business. Established in 1946, UNIC Washington is part of a worldwide network of some 67 similar UN offices and is a division of the UN Department of Public Information. The center's 10-person staff oversees the office's library, disseminates information to the press, maintains contact with nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), and UN's liaison with the US Congress.

In addition to these duties, the UNIC Washington houses the liaison offices of the UN Development Programme, UN Environment Programme and the International Fund for Agriculture.

Presiding over the office's activities is Catherine O'Neill. Appointed as Director of UNIC Washington by Secretary General Kofi A. Annan in March 1999, O'Neill was the founder of the Women's Commission on Refugee Women and Children, a US-based advocacy organization focusing on the needs of displaced families.

O'Neill is a seasoned veteran of a host of global organizations. She has worked for the International Monetary Fund and the Foreign Policy Association and has served as a delegate to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women and on the Board of Directors of the International Rescue Committee. O'Neill is also no stranger to Capitol Hill, where she has testified before numerous committees over the years.

This background comes in handy when representing the UN in Washington. Here, UNIC, like hundreds of other interest groups associations to political parties and activists of every description vie for attention and understanding. For the UN, that hasn't always been easy.

One of the biggest tests for UNIC Washington came in the mid-1990s, when the US Congress, upset over what many of its members considered widespread waste and abuse at the UN, ceased paying America's dues to the organization. According to Dawn Calabia, deputy director of UNIC Washington, her office played a modest role in promoting a dialogue between Congress and the UN that eventually led to resolving the conflict. "We explained to UN officials in New York and to member nations that, in the US, the president proposes and the Congress disposes," she said. "Mutual understanding was essential," she added. In this regard, she applauds the decision by Senator Jesse Helms, Republican of North Carolina and, at the time, chairman of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, to take members of his influential panel to UN headquarters in New York to further the dialogue between the United States and the UN.

Since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, UNIC has been instrumental in drawing congressional and media attention to the UN's steps to counter global terrorism, Calabia explained. Chief among them, she said, have been the UN's efforts to cut off financing of terrorist governments. The post Sept. 11 world has seen UNIC Washington in constant contact with Congress, the State Department, and American media to make them aware of the steps the UN is taking to combat terrorism.

Historically, Washington has viewed and treated the UN alternately as a stepchild, errand boy, and the UN's creation at the end of World War II, the US has often gone its own way and will do so again. When necessary, it will call on UN peacekeepers and UN refugee organizations to perform tasks Washington is unwilling to undertake. When things go bad, as they did in the 1990s in Somalia and, initially, in Yugoslavia, the UN will find itself on the receiving end of American ire, whether justified or not. When such situations arise, the small office on K Street will, once again, have its hands full.