What in the world is the U.S. doing?
Our foreign policy seems to be creating more problems than it is solving. Violent conflict is increasing, diplomacy is deteriorating, and people throughout the world feel a rising resentment against U.S. actions. At home, we feel less secure, and our future is less certain.
We need to change course. We need to turn fear into determination and restore respect for U.S. leadership in the world. We must meet new challenges in security, economics, and environment with a positive sense of new possibilities.
Can we really change the course of foreign policy? Yes, because we did it before.
Our proud history and our common values can guide us in setting new directions for foreign policy.
In the 1930s, we discarded an aggressive foreign policy that had sparked anti-American backlash around the world, and we committed ourselves to a new policy based on mutual respect and international cooperation. The Good Neighbor policy of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt emphasized “mutual respect,” global interdependence, cultural diversity, and common values in foreign and domestic policies. This positive agenda won widespread respect for the United States as a global leader and partner.
Yes, the world has changed since the 1930s and the Good Neighbor policy had its flaws. But FDR's conviction that global relations improve when nations treat each other as neighbors and when foreign and domestic policies complement one another made good sense back then—and once again can provide an inspiration for international relations.
Like any household, a nation must ensure its own welfare.
Our nation's well-being increasingly depends on that of the entire global neighborhood. Alone, as one household, we cannot confront the looming threats of global warming, terrorism, infectious disease, loose nukes, or the inequity caused by unregulated economic globalization.
In today's interconnected global neighborhood, we can best serve our national interest by cooperating with our neighbors to solve the global problems we face together. This new approach to foreign policy should be a natural extension of domestic policies based on the same spirit of respect and cooperative problem-solving—just as FDR did with his social security plans, jobs programs, and corporate regulations.
A new foreign policy must affirm the U.S. role as a responsible member of the international community. It must seek solutions to complex global problems that are shared, equitable, and based on international norms and law.
What about bad neighbors?
Every neighborhood has problems with bad neighbors.
But when neighbors get together to solve community problems, they often arrive at lasting solutions for everyone that are far more effective than stopgap individual measures. In the global neighborhood, too, cooperation, alliances, and multilateralism create more stable and enduring security solutions than isolation and unilateral intervention.
A foreign policy driven by fear feigns strength through the use of force but is morally and intellectually weak. FDR's good neighbor policy established the grounds for a common response to common threats. Rather than acting alone, FDR advised the world that only collective action would free the world from tyranny, want, and fear.
By restoring the neighborly ethic of mutual respect for each other's rights and an understanding of the importance of community, we can make enormous strides in promoting peace, development, and good governance—not only for our nation but also for the entire global neighborhood.
We suggest seven guiding principles for developing a new “global good neighbor” orientation to foreign policy. The Global Good Neighbor Principles offer a new groundwork for public debate on remaking our foreign policy based on simple shared values that apply good neighbor practices in international relations. The principles provide guideposts for global engagement, whether the problem is devastating tidal waves, global climate change, transnational terrorism, or persistent poverty.
What can you do?
Participating in the Global Good Neighbor initiative doesn't require signing a document of principles. It doesn't mean joining—or leaving—the conservative, liberal, progressive, left, or right political camps. Rather, it's an initiative to use citizen-based measures and values to evaluate and guide our foreign policy. Visit the Global Good Neighbor website (at www.globalgoodneighbor.org) to learn how you can promote the good neighbor ethic and begin improving international relations.
It's time to reclaim our heritage and place our common values at the center of our foreign policy. It's time for “we the people” and our government to once again become good global neighbors and to inspire others to do the same.
The concept is simple
Good neighbor practices make the global neighborhood a safer, friendlier, healthier place. That's a basis on which everyone—not just experts and politicians—can work together.
