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We have been continuing our 25th anniversary celebrations, which began last January in Santa Fe, NM, with wonderful events in New York City and Washington, DC.
Our East Coast sojourn began in New York with a press briefing at the United Nations under the auspices of the UN Correspondents’ Association. This coincided with the public release of our new report, A Global Good Neighbor Ethic for International Relations, on May 16, 2005.
The briefing at the UN was particularly encouraging, as Secretary-General Kofi Annan had recently invoked the contributions of Franklin Roosevelt in the formation of the United Nations in the conclusion of his report, “In Larger Freedom,” and in his commentary in the current edition of Foreign Relations, citing the importance of FDR’s vision of “freedom from fear” and “freedom from want.”
But the week was just beginning. On Tuesday we met with a variety of foundation representatives and others in the donor community at the Nathan Cummings Foundation. We would like to thank them for their hospitality and assistance and compliment them for their beautiful facility overlooking Manhattan and the East River. John Gershman, Laura Carlsen, and Tom Barry cited the accomplishments, goals, and challenges of their respective programs, Foreign Policy In Focus, IRC Americas Program, and Right Web, with Deb Preusch giving an overview of the IRC.
This, of course, was a precursor to the presentation of the Global Good Neighbor Initiative and our new report. The presentation was extremely well-received and stimulated a dialogue not only on the issues raised in the report but also about how diverse organizations could incorporate Global Good Neighbor (GGN) concepts and principles into their work.
Concluding the presentation and with imaginations stirred, we then greeted additional arrivals for a reception that included many old and new friends. Merriment reigned as Bill Hartung, Michael Ratner, Laura Carlsen, and Salih Booker recalled a bit of the IRC’s colorful history and its plans for the future with Global Good Neighbor.
Proceeding to Washington, DC, on Wednesday, we began with a party attended by our many DC-area friends and supporters. Thursday started early, when a distinguished panel of experts discussed and critiqued our Global Good Neighbor Initiative.
George Vickers of the Open Society Institute began the discussion as moderator, and Tom Barry presented the Global Good Neighbor Initiative to a diverse audience that included colleagues from other policy studies institutions, academia, media, government agencies, faith-based organizations, and NGOs. Additional panelists included Johanna Mendelson Forman, United Nations Foundation; Anatol Lieven, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace; Ann Wright, former U.S. diplomat and retired U.S. Army Reserve colonel; and Salih Booker, director of Africa Action.
Congratulations and thanks are due to all the IRC staff, its board, the New York and DC organizing committees, and our many friends and colleagues who participated or assisted in this effort. Further, we thank you, our supporters and donors, who have fueled the IRC’s work and shown confidence in our mission. We think you will find A Global Good Neighbor Ethic for International Relations to be both a document—and the heart of an initiative—that you will be proud to support as a defining moment in the IRC’s history as we embark on 25 more years.
IRC Presents Global Good Neighbor
What is a Global Good Neighbor? IRC staff are happy to present it, and are hopeful that you understand it easily, revitalize your will for activism, and spread this “new” ethic far and wide.
With the introduction of the Global Good Neighbor Initiative, the IRC may have its most effective tool yet to further our mission of
promoting progressive
strategic dialogues that lead to
new citizen-based agendas.
We are not alone in this assessment. Ann Wright, a former diplomat, stated in her opening comments for our panel at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace,
“Just the fact that you have
presented this type of concept
right now.… is a miracle we need, it’s a miracle that the world needs… It is so important that
you bring out a document titled
A Global Good Neighbor Ethic for International Relations to say
we want a dialogue in this
country about what our country should really stand for.”
Salih Booker, IRC Board co-chair, is more worried, and said, “The global neighborhood is in trouble.” We hope this initiative sparks the kind of miracle to which Ann referred, and proves Salih’s concerns premature. The IRC is providing a tool we want you to pick up and use. It’s been said that if you only have a hammer, everything starts to look like nails. Our report is neither a blunt instrument nor a Swiss Army knife. Think of it more like a wheel or an inclined plane—a concept based on a fundamental law of nature that can give rise to new ideas.
In America, we have a legacy that we can recall, honor, expand, and perpetuate. President Franklin Roosevelt’s Good Neighbor policy in the 1930s 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. It brought hope to a world in fear, it brought sustenance to people in need, and it brought dignity to the degraded and oppressed.
With the Global Good Neighbor Initiative, we have a tool to gather Americans into a dialogue that asks for simple answers to direct questions: Are we, can we be, do we wish to be, a global good neighbor? Do we want our country, and every country, to adhere to an ethic and principles that are easily recognized as those of a good neighbor?
Do we want those same ethics and principles to inform our institutions, our culture, our workplaces, and our daily lives? And ultimately we must ask ourselves, “Am I a good neighbor?”
We believe that the most cherished values and self-image of America are confirmed when we answer these questions affirmatively.
We feel strongly about this initiative and earnestly invite you to spread the word, employ the ideas, and use your own creativity in building momentum for this effort. Share these ideas with your co-workers, family, friends, church, civic groups, and local media. We want the term Global Good Neighbor to become a household expression that clearly defines an inclusive and cooperative approach to our foreign policy and our daily lives. We believe it is rooted in self-respect as well as respect for all in this world, which is, increasingly, one big neighborhood.
About the Global Good Neighbor Initiative
The IRC is launching the Global Good Neighbor Initiative with a series of policy papers, including A Global Good Neighbor Ethic for International Relations and The Good Neighbor Policy—A History to Make Us Proud, co-authored by Tom Barry, Salih Booker, Laura Carlsen, Marie Dennis, and John Gershman. Forthcoming papers in the Global Good Neighbor series include regional policy overviews that apply the ethic’s principles to each of the world’s regions and a thematic series on the major issues of international relations, including security, sustainable development, and governance. All GGN publications are available online at http://ggn.irc-online.org/.
Good Neighbor Principles
The globalized conditions of the 21st century require a Global Good Neighbor ethic consisting of four general principles and three precepts that address the primary areas of international relations: military affairs, sustainable development, and governance.
Principle One: The first step toward being a good neighbor is to stop being a bad neighbor.
Principle Two: Our nation’s foreign policy agenda must be tied to broad U.S. interests. To be effective and win public support, a new foreign policy agenda must work in tandem with new domestic policies to improve security, quality of life, and basic rights in our own country.
Principle Three: Given that our national interests, security, and social well-being are interconnected with those of other peoples, U.S. foreign policy must be based on reciprocity rather than domination, mutual well-being rather than cutthroat competition, and cooperation rather than confrontation.
Principle Four: As the world’s foremost power, the United States will be best served by exercising responsible global leadership and partnership rather than seeking global dominance.
Principle Five: An effective security policy must be two-pronged. Genuine national safety requires both a well-prepared military capable of repelling attacks on our country and a proactive commitment to improving national and personal security through nonmilitary measures and international cooperation.
Principle Six: The U.S. government should support sustainable development, first at home and then abroad, through its macroeconomic trade, investment, and aid policies.
Principle Seven: A peaceful and prosperous global neighborhood depends on effective governance at national, regional, and international levels. Effective governance is accountable, transparent, and representative.
Like FDR’s international relations initiatives, these principles break with the traditions of the foreign policy elites and emulate the practices of towns, communities, and neighborhoods across our land. They are easily understood, because they are not drawn from foreign policy journals or ideological tracts. Global Good Neighbor 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.
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