Time to Change Course in International Relations
Toward a New Global Good Neighbor Policy
The GGN Committee of the International Relations Center
will submit this declaration along with a list of those who have signed on
to the leaders in Congress and in both political parties.
The 2006 mid-term elections demonstrated the widespread public belief that U.S. foreign policy needs to change course. Pulling U.S. troops out of Iraq is the necessary first step away from a strategy of international relations predicated on U.S. military might and moral righteousness. Polls show that Americans favor a new approach based on international cooperation and good neighbor values.
An increasingly interdependent world makes it impossible for the United States to retreat from the politics of global domination into isolationism or a foreign policy realism narrowly focused on U.S. national interests. Nor is it possible for the United States to return to the traditional style of internationalism in which the United States stands in the center as a global cop, a meddling moral crusader, and the final arbiter of international relations.
In the 1930s and 1940s, FDR's Good Neighbor policy took the nation on a new course—away from imperialism and interventionism and toward a foreign policy marked by mutual respect, freedom from fear, and a commitment to international cooperation.
We can do it again. A foreign policy shaped by common values and informed by common heritage would restore our country's reputation as a responsible global leader and partner. The concept of a Global Good Neighbor foreign policy is simple: Good neighbor values and practices make the global neighborhood a safer, healthier, friendlier place.
Setting a new course in foreign policy is a major undertaking. We offer the following seven principles as a starting point in defining a new course in international relations—a course that would make us better global neighbors and would at the same time improve our security and sense of well-being.
Inspired by Franklin D. Roosevelt's vision of international relations guided by "mutual respect" and cooperation, the IRC’s Global Good Neighbor Initiative is reclaiming this legacy by promoting dialogue and action aimed at forging a new animating vision for foreign policy in our time:
A Global Good Neighbor Ethic for International Relations
http://ggn.irc-online.org/
For media inquiries, email media@irc-online.org or call (505) 388-0208.
