By GEORGE ROCHE

President, Hillsdale College

Last fall, UN Ambassador Bill Richardson, Secretary of State Madeleine Al-bright and President Bill Clinton mounted a strenuous effort to convince Americans the U.S. owed the UN well over a billion dollars.

But there's a danger here far greater than billions. Former UN Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali launched the principle of "universal" sovereignty which holds that certain rights reside in all humanity and which "provides all peoples with legitimate involvement affecting the world as a whole." So Somalia became a "threat to international peace and security" to justify UN action there.Expanding Jurisdiction

Former Ambassador to the UN Jeanne Kirkpatrick warns, "Loose constructionists of the UN Charter believe the existence of such problems justifies expanding UN jurisdiction to deal with them . . . Someone had better think through this question, and soon."

Boutros-Ghali believes otherwise claiming, "the centuries-old doctrine of absolute and exclusive sovereignty no longer stands." This dangerous notion, according to Gary Bauer and Robert Maginnis, "leaves all member countries, including the U.S.,vulnerable to having their own sovereign territory compromised."

They note Korean-Americans could say Los Angeles riots threat- en them and South Korea could ask the UN to intervene. U.S. veto power would stop such action, but that veto could eventually be compromised if, according to Bauer and Maginnis, "the UN has a standing military governed by a liberal world community."

Those who don't take Kirkpatrick's warning seriously might remember that Richard Nixon signed the World Heritage Convention in 1973 establishing sites "considered to be of such exceptional interest and such universal value that their protection is the responsibility of all humanity."

Since then the UN Educational,Cultural and social Organization has added "buffer zones" to the original American site list and included "parts of Utah, Idaho,, Wyoming and Montana, an area between 14 and 18 million acres."

Pie in the Western sky? Ask Joe Baylis. His gold mine met all state and federal regulations, was well outside the boundaries of Yellowstone Park, approved the US Forest Service, and yet was shut down by UN bureaucrats using the World Heritage "guidelines." World Heritage Committee members flew from Europe and Asia to exercise their "right" to veto any activity they claimed threatened the ecosystem. Bill Clinton signed the agreement to close the mine.