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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