Although Chavez would be loathe to thank "the devil," as he dubbed Bush at last month's U.N. General Assembly, for his apparent good fortune, the Bush administration's systematic destruction of the United States' standing in the world has made Venezuela's candidacy not only possible, but viable.

From any objective measure, a Chavez-led Venezuela does not deserve a seat on the Security Council. Chavez has an open contempt for representative democracy; he has undermined many of the fundamental rights of his fellow citizens; he has systematically embraced some of the globe's worst actors; he has questioned the very existence of the United Nations. The list goes on and on.

Although the cynic may note that some of the above is also true of one or more of the Security Council's permanent members, all can agree that more of the same is not the way to make the Council more effective.

How did such an undeserving candidate come to stand on the cusp of winning such a coveted position? In short, the law of unintended consequences.

As evidenced by his outlandish speech in New York last month, Chavez has fashioned Venezuela's Security Council campaign as an anti-United States and, more specifically, an anti-President Bush campaign. That, sadly, appears to be a recipe for success given current public opinion throughout the Americas and across the globe.

Despite a brief up-tick following U.S. efforts to aid tsunami victims, the Pew Research Center's Global Attitudes Project has shown a steady decline in global public opinion regarding the United States since the summer of 2002. The numbers in the Americas are even starker. According to the well-respected Latinobarometro multinational survey, only 34 percent of Latin Americans had "some or a great deal" of confidence in the United States in 2005.

Such opinion has not arisen from thin air, nor did it have to come to pass. It is the result of the Bush administration's failed, ideologically-driven policies and heavy-handed tactics that have alienated a large number of countries, including traditional allies, and has diminished our moral standing and made the United States less safe.

With the spread of democracy during the past 20 years, being held in such low esteem hinders our ability to protect our interests. In short, the opinions of people in far corners of our hemisphere and the globe can and do render the United States less powerful.

Ironically, one of the key steps along the Bush administration's destructive path - then Secretary of State Colin Powell's presentation of "evidence" regarding Iraq's purported weapons of mass destruction - took place in the very chamber in which Venezuela may soon take a seat.

The rush to war in Iraq under false pretences alienated many countries that had rallied to our side in the aftermath of Sept. 11. The war itself, as the recent National Intelligence Estimate confirmed, has made us less safe.

An alternative progressive vision for keeping America safe and engaged in the world exists. Integrated Power, a national security strategy championed by the Center for American Progress, calls for the use of the full range of American power - political, diplomatic, and economic - to meet the global threats and challenges the United States faces.

The United States must stand ready to use force when necessary, but it must use all the tools at our disposal to combat the forces of fragmentation and instability that make us less safe. The United States needs vital alliances and modernized international institutions as part of those efforts - not ones weakened by the promotion of the likes of Hugo Chavez.

Integrated Power, at this late hour, cannot keep Venezuela off the Security Council. Only a principled decision by the countries of the Americas to examine Chavez's Venezuela through the prism of whether it adheres to the region's shared commitment to democracy and stability rather than one that asks whether they stand with or against the Bush administration will keep Chavez off the Council.

The application of Integrated Power moving forward, however, will allow us to restore the United States' rightful place in the world and avoid the kinds of spectacles that may await if Venezuela takes a seat on the Security Council thanks to the Bush administration's failed policies.

Dan Restrepo is the director of The Americas Project at the Center for American Progress, a Democrat-leaning think tank in Washington. Web site: www.americanprogress.org.