Introducing Global Good Neighbor

Executive Summary
A GlobalGood Neighbor Ethic for International Relations

The U.S. government has failed to craft an effective foreign policy for thepost-Cold War, post-9/11 world. Despite the growing interdependency of peoplesand nations around the world, U.S. foreignpolicy is increasingly influenced by unilateralist interests. The InternationalRelations Center (IRC) proposes a change in the paradigm in which we discuss U.S. foreign policy. It is encapsulated in theforthcoming Special Report A Global Good Neighbor Ethic for InternationalRelations, a product of the IRC and Foreign Policy in Focus.

A Global Good Neighbor Ethic for International Relations draws heavilyfrom an earlier period in U.S. historywhen U.S. foreign policy was aggressivelyimperialist, yet emerged to offer a new, compelling, and transformative visionto animate and rejuvenate U.S. foreignpolicy and the role of the United Statesin the world. This period–the Good Neighbor era initiated by PresidentFranklin Delano Roosevelt–presented a dramatic departure from a U.S. foreign policy that focused on empire building to apolicy based on an international society in the aftermath of the devastation ofWorld War II, and the creation of the United Nations.

With its Global Good Neighbor Initiative, the IRC hopes to incite a newvision and practice for U.S. foreign policy–a vision thatembraces reflections from people around the world and is grounded in the beliefthat U.S. citizens should be activeparticipants in the formation of a new foreign policy. Forthcoming papers inthe Global Good Neighbor series include regional policy overviews that applythe ethic’s principles to each of the world’s regions and a thematic series onthe major issues of international relations, including security, sustainabledevelopment, and governance.

(The authors of A Global Good Neighbor Ethic for International Relationsare Tom Barry Policy Director of the International Relations Center(IRC) — online at http://www.irc-online.org— and the founder of Foreign Policy In Focus, Salih Booker ExecutiveDirector of Africa Action and co-chair of the IRC’s board of directors, LauraCarlsen Director of the IRC Americas Program, Marie Dennis Directorof the Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns and a member of the IRC board ofdirectors, John Gershman Codirector of Foreign Policy In Focus and thedirector of the IRC Global Affairs Program.)

The four-page executive summary of the A Global Good Neighbor Ethic ofInternational Relations is available: http://www.irc-online.org/content/ggn/index.php#index

The full report will available on Monday 16 May 2005 following a press conference at theUnited Nations.

An introductory report The Global Good Neighbor Policy–A History to Make UsProud, is available: http://www.irc-online.org/content/ggn/index.php#index.

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Inconjunction with the IRC’s 25th anniversary, we have a new name: InternationalRelations Center (formerly Interhemispheric Resource Center). We remain committed to our mission of “Working to make the United States a more responsible member of theglobal community by promoting strategic dialogues that lead to newcitizen-based agendas.”

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