“The negotiation rooms should in future be an inebriation-free zone,” the diplomat, Joseph M. Torsella, said.

So far, there seems little chance the suggestion will lead to any change in behavior.

“This is roughly the equivalent of when you’re a teenager and your parents embarrass you because you got drunk the night before,” said Richard Gowan, an expert on the United Nations at New York University’s Center for International Cooperation. “I think there is a lot of snickering.”

Even as Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has taken steps to curb the unhealthier appetites of New York City’s residents — whether they like it or not — the United Nations has stood a world apart. The headquarters is not subject to the city’s laws, and for years after smoking was banned all around the United Nations — first in city offices, then in bars and restaurants — delegates puffed away in the corridors and meeting rooms of the General Assembly building. Smoking was ultimately banned at the United Nations in 2008.

Despite the fact that the building continues to be torn apart as it is renovated, walking inside still feels like stepping back in time. The optimism and hope it symbolized as it rose after the wreckage of the Second World War are still evident, as is a certain sense that the mores of that era still apply when it comes to drinking.

“The U.N. has been cleaning itself up physically, but there is still a sort of residual 1950s, 1960s feel to the culture,” said Mr. Gowan, whose father was a diplomat. “You do sort of feel that you are sort of stuck in the past.”