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Summary
UK Foreign Policy needs changing. When 'new' Labour came to power in
1997, it was hoped by many that a new 'ethical foreign policy' would be enacted.
Sadly, the Blair leadership was too weak minded and fearful of the reactions of
other governments (like Zimbabwe), and instead has continued in much the same
style as the previous 4 conservative administrations. With continued arms
sales to unstable and nasty countries around the world, civilians in many
nations have been persecuted, tortured, and murdered by un-democratic Governments using
weaponry made and sold by British Companies. This is a shameful situation which
must end. Is it the case that the UK government value the profits of UK companies
over the lives of innocent civilians across the planet ?
Proposals
-Arms Sales : Implement new strict rules for Arms sales. No Arms sales would be
permitted to
countries where the Government. is undemocratic, and where the country has not had at
least 50 years of good relations with it's neighbours. I cite the example of
India and Pakistan, both of whom have fought 3 wars in relatively recent times. Why
the UK Government continue to permit the sale of arms to India is shocking, considering
that India remains a nation in a perpetual state of near-war with it's neighbour
Pakistan.
-Foreign Aid : An end to most short term aid. Instead, long term aid should be
provided and targeted in terms of
'Capital investment'- and only in cases where the Government of that
country has been politically stable for at least 10 years. Aid of ANY kind should
never be provided to a
country where the ruling government is largely corrupt/undemocratic, such aid tends to
usually lead to the
regime lasting even longer (I cite the case of Zimbabwe).
-Focus on building relations with the emerging giants - namely China and
India. Within 15-25 years, both India and China will probably be 2 of the worlds
leading economic nations. The UK needs to focus on building relations with both
these two nations, especially in terms of finding opportunities for mutual
capital investment. At present the UK's obsession with trade with America and
within the Euro zone is understandable, but within a decade or so these trading blocks
will be insignificant compared to the opportunities likely to become available
from India and China.
Conclusion
A hard choice needs to be made, either to accept and tolerate abusive
governments....or to shun them - using every means possible. The case of the
Labour government failing dismally to make a stand against the ruthless
president Mugabe of Zimbabwe is a classic case of a gutless leadership. Surely
the UK deserves better than this ? Do the UK people not believe in ethics above
monetary gain ? The irony is that the relative financial benefits of trading
with these abysmal regimes (including Iraq throughout the 1980's), usually leads to a
greater cost in the longer term.
So, which of the two paths do you follow, a strict ethical policy, or would you
rather have a few hundred million in profits from Arms sales each year, but then
to see
a number of third world dictatorships fight each other using UK weaponry ?
Links
Labour - Ethical Foreign Policy : A comprehensive summary, with regular
updates on government policy, via Guardian online
New Directions in UK Foreign Policy : Written at the
time of Labour coming to power in August1997, this is still an interesting
article to read, which details the original intentions that the 'New' Labour
government proposed, especially in terms of securing human rights across the
world.
Samuel Brittan: Hinton Lecture : A transcript of a great lecture on the
ethics and morality of foreign policy
An Ethical Dimension to Foreign Policy ? : Higgins' 2000 debates the
conflict between national interest and ethics in policy
Morality and Foreign Policy : Rt. Hon Sir Percy Cradock' 1999
lecture on the difficulty of politics and creating ethical policy.
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Page last updated :
23/07/2004
