U.S. isolated as sole vote against UN resolution for more accurate world maps

Late last week, the United States cast the sole vote opposing a United Nations General Assembly resolution encouraging member states to use accurate world maps. The resolution specifically aimed to shift away from the Mercator projection—which enlarges landmasses near the poles relative to those closer to the equator—to the Equal Earth projection, which provides a less distorted view of the relative size of continents.

The effort was driven by the African Group, comprising fifty-four African countries, collectively seeking to correct perceptions of their continent's size.

U.S. Objections and Rationale

According to a statement delivered by U.S. officials, the resolution was characterized as:

• An affront to "common sense"
• A stalking horse for a "radical ideological project"
• A distraction from more important matters before the United Nations

The latter argument has drawn particular scrutiny, given the administration's own focus on renaming bodies of water in lieu of effective diplomacy.

Implications of the U.S. Stance

The decision raises several questions about American interests and foreign policy:

• What agenda is advanced through cartographic accuracy? The answer appears to be one that does not minimize or dismiss Africa or Africans.
• How does rejecting this effort to correct a distortion that visibly concerns African nations advance American interests or facilitate security and economic partnerships with African states?
• Is there a domestic political audience demanding poorly designed maps that justifies alienating Africans—who will soon account for one quarter of the world's population—by suggesting they should accept a misleadingly shrunken representation of their place in the world?

Broader Context

By positioning "common sense" in opposition to accuracy, the United States appears to suggest that any revision—even one aimed at correcting misperceptions—is an affront to a preferable, comfortable, mistaken impression. This pattern extends beyond cartography to include:

• Denying the reality of climate change, which is dramatically reshaping the world, to the extent that the word "sustainability" becomes forbidden
• Pretending that the most pressing refugee need among the world's people is that of white South Africans

This insistence on fiction isolates the United States and, at best, confounds the rest of the world. The message conveyed is not merely a demand to be wrong, but a demand that others agree to these delusions.

This work represents the views solely of the author(s). The Council on Foreign Relations is an independent, nonpartisan membership organization, think tank, and publisher, and takes no institutional positions on matters of policy.