Guest Column

Reclaiming Our Good Neighbor Legacy

May 30, 2005

An IRC Report
Is the U.S. a good neighbor? In the 1930s, President Franklin Roosevelt decided that U.S. foreign policy needed a dramatic overhaul­ because America’s military occupations, dollar diplomacy, and disdain for other cultures were bad for business, bad for U.S. security, and bad for our own self-respect as a nation.
 
A report released today by a team of foreign policy experts makes a compelling case that FDR’s Good Neighbor policy can inspire a new framework for international relations. A Global Good Neighbor Ethic for International Relations, a 32-page report produced by the International Relations Center (http://www.irc-online.org/) and Foreign Policy In Focus (http://www.fpif.org/), concludes that good neighbor principles and practices would be a healthy departure form business as usual.
 
“[It’s] time to push our way through the barricades established by outdated political labels of conservative vs. liberal, realist vs. idealist, or isolationist vs. internationalist,” and ground a new foreign policy in the best of American values, state the authors.
 
The report is a product of the IRC’s Global Good Neighbor Initiative (http://www.irc-online.org/content/ggn/index.php) This initiative promotes dialogue and action aimed at forging a new animating vision for U.S. foreign policy--a vision that reflects insights from people worldwide and that is grounded in the belief that U.S. citizens should be active participants in the formation of a new foreign policy.
 
The United States is at a crossroads that will define our future and our children’s future. Our foreign policy can no longer be seen as the exclusive domain of experts. We believe the global good neighbor ethic is one that can serve as a common ground for framing debates over the appropriate roles, principles, and practices/policies of citizen movements, businesses, governments, and nongovernmental and inter-governmental organizations. We invite suggestions, comments, criticisms, and collaborators in the process of reclaiming a tradition in U.S. foreign policy and remaking it for the challenges of our time.
 
Report Authors:
Tom Barry is cofounder and policy director of International Relations Center.
Salih Booker, cochair of the IRC's board of directors, is executive director of Africa Action.
Laura Carlsen directs the IRC Americas Program at the IRC.
Marie Dennis, a member of the IRC's board of directors, directs the Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns.
John Gershman directs the IRC's Global Affairs Program and is codirector of Foreign Policy in Focus.  
 
See complete new IRC Report online via:
http://www.irc-online.org/content/ggn/index.php
 
"In the field of world policy I would dedicate this nation to the policy of the good neighbor - the neighbor who resolutely respects himself and, because he does so, respects the right of others."
 President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Inaugural Address, March 4, 1933