Tom Barry is the policy director of the International Relations Center, online at http://www.irc-online.org and co-author of a new report,A Global Good Neighbor Ethic for International Relations . Other authors are Salih Booker, Laura Carlsen, Marie Dennis and John Gershman.
Seldom, if ever, has U.S. foreign policy been as confusing or as divisive as it is today. The occupation of Iraq, the deepening trade deficit, saber-rattling abroad and disdain for international cooperation have left the American public uncertain about what exactly the U.S. government is doing overseas, and why.
The Bush administration has reoriented the nation's foreign policy through its doctrine of preventive war and its ideological mission to export "freedom." Rather than building broad consensus after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the administration has polarized the citizenry.
Public uncertainty about what in the world we are doing is not a new phenomenon, and certainly not one that's distinctive to the George W. Bush era. The American public has frequently questioned whether Washington's foreign policy really serves U.S.interests and truly makes us more secure. These concerns have long shadowed foreign policy, especially since the 1890s, when our revolutionary republic began thinking more about expanding the U.S. dominion abroad—and less about its own independence, democracy and freedom.
Today the "global war on terror" and talk of "regime change" in other countries have sparked criticism from both the political left and right, and many voices have risen to protest these initiatives and demand a change in foreign policy. The president says we should "stay the course." But the high costs, scant results, and increasing dangers of our current foreign policy course indicate the need for a sharp change in direction.
Fortunately, U.S. foreign policy has another legacy—one that makes us proud and can serve as a model and inspiration for ourselves and others. It is the Good Neighbor policy that President Franklin D. Roosevelt proposed in the 1930s as a fresh perspective on international relations and U.S. foreign affairs. The Good Neighbor policy of the Rooseveltpresidency (1933-1945) marked a dramatic shift in U.S. foreign relations, characterized by a public repudiation of three decades of imperialism, cultural and racial stereotyping and military intervention.
In his March 1933 inaugural address, Roosevelt announced a new approach to international relations that would become known as his Good Neighbor policy. "I would dedicate this nation to the policy of the good neighbor—the neighbor who resolutely respects himself and, because he does so, respects the rights of others."
In keeping with this new vision of international relations and U.S. foreign policy, FDR proclaimed that every nation should be "the neighbor who respects his obligations and respects the sanctity of his agreements in and with a world of neighbors."
The Good Neighbor Policy of the 1930s provides inspiration for another approach to international relations—not a radically different one, but one deeply rooted in our own history.
Our world has seen major transformations unimagined in the days of the Great Depression and the New Deal. As national and global conditions change, political agendas must also evolve. FDR's Good Neighbor policy cannot be applied as a blueprint for foreign policy today, but the basic principles behind it offer keys to building new international relations that are socially, politically and environmentally sustainable.
A new Global Good Neighbor ethic would build on the best practices and policies of the Roosevelt years. Like FDR's international relations initiatives, they break with the traditions of the foreign policy elites and emulate the practices of towns, communities and neighborhoods across our land.
Global Good Neighbor principles are easily understood, because they are not drawn from foreign policy journals or ideological tracts. These principles reflect our basic values, our golden rules, our personal responsibility, our common sense and our human decency. They are principles based on the everyday practices of good neighbors.
The current foreign policy framework of the "global war on terrorism" has generated hypocrisy and quagmires. In the name of fighting international terror, the U.S.government, with bipartisan support, is mired in a war against "narcoterrorism" in Colombia, committed to long-term military occupations in Iraq and Afghanistan, and shackled to support for intransigent hard-liners in Israel. So broad, vague, and bewildering is the framework of the war against terrorism that it justifies aiding outlaw states like Pakistan, condemning citizen movements and political leaders as "radical populism," walling up the U.S.-Mexico border, and routinely violating civil liberties and human rights at home and abroad.
We can no longer "stay the course" as President Bush has advocated and as the leaders of both political parties have largely affirmed.
To change course, America needs a new ethic of international relations. For that, we don't need to start from scratch or borrow from the United Nations, Europe or any single political sector at home. The U.S. government and people have the legacy of FDR's Good Neighbor policy as an auspicious touchstone. If we restore the neighborly ethic of mutual respect for each other's rights, we will have made enormous strides in promoting security, development, and good governance—not only for our nation but for the entire globe. We will have gone a long way toward ensuring that the United States is never again feared and hated by our global neighbors as the bully on the block.
If the U.S.government adopted Global Good Neighbor ethics, we the people would no longer be so confused about what in the world we are doing in other countries. Whether the problem is devastating tidal waves, transnational terrorism, or global climate change, adopting a good neighbor ethic would provide us with the guideposts for global engagement for global engagement policies that are effective and easily understood.
Adopting the Global Good Neighbor ethic doesn't require backing a specific political party. It doesn't mean joining or leaving the conservative, liberal, progressive, left, or right political camps. All it requires is a belief, as Roosevelt had, that everyday good neighborly practices—self-respect, mutual respect and a spirit of cooperation—are the proper starting points for mutually beneficial international relations. This "policy of the good neighbor" was right in the 1930s, and it is right again for our time.
