Another way to strengthen the American cause would be to create a U.N. economic freedom caucus -- a bloc of nations essentially dedicated to liberty. Economic freedom means individuals enjoy basic rights: the right to work, to produce, and to save without government telling them what to do.

Countries with greater economic freedom create more opportunities for people to get ahead. They also tend to show greater respect for human rights. Economic freedom helps create a framework that allows people to succeed. Sending foreign aid to countries that have failed to embrace economic reform simply encourages developing nations to travel further down the road to perpetual dependency.

Meanwhile, we should look beyond the United Nations.

The U.S. should organize a Global Economic Free­dom Forum outside the U.N. to bring together nations so they can collaborate more effectively to spread economic liberty.

As a bonus, such nations would be more likely to vote with the U.S. in the General Assembly. Schaefer and Kim found that “free and mostly free countries” voted with the U.S. more than twice as often as countries with repressed economies.

There’s a reason the U.S. has the world’s largest economy: Our ideas of freedom and opportunity work. Our aid, and the United Nations, should advance the spread of those ideas. That way, future generations can enjoy the prosperity Americans take for granted.