Defending Humane Internationalism

Abstract

Policy Officer, Canadian Council for International Cooperation. This article is presented in a personal capacity and does not necessarily represent the views of the CCIC or its member organizations. I would like to thank Richard Sandbrook and Robert Matthews for comments that much improved the clarity of my argument, for which I alone am responsible.IN THE SECURITY-CONSCIOUS ERA following 11 September 2001, Cranford Pratt's notions of the ethical imperative in Canadian foreign policy still provide inspiring guidelines within which non-governmental organizations (NGOs) may develop sound policy.(1) His arguments for humane internationalism should encourage Canadian NGOs to focus more resources on creating informed, ethical programmes and on educating Canadian citizens about their responsibilities in development issues. NGOs should not stray from their advocacy of Canada's historical concern with an ethically responsive foreign policy.Since the 1960s, Canada's internationally oriented NGOs have defined their engagement with Canadian foreign policy through an ethic of justice and human rights. The Canadian Council for International Co-operation's (CCIC) brief to the 1995 foreign policy review suggests, for example, that 'the primary goal of Canadian foreign policy should be global justice and sustainability'; the former is achieved 'through the advancement of the full range of human rights.' Indeed, NGOs have long advocated a principled foreign policy; they have focused on social and economic justice (with an emphasis on ending global poverty), equality and equity, self-determination and democratic development, the pursuit of peace, respect for diversity, and environmental integrity. They should continue to do so.This values-based and rights approach is deeply rooted in the personal history of Canadian activists and the institutional roles of many of these NGOs in Canadian civic culture. Canadians working overseas in the 1960s and 1970s inspired NGO policy. The confluence of the values and politics of alternative movements in the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s for NGO staff and volunteers was a key ingredient in the formative periods of several Canadian NGOs. The influence of church-based coalitions and other civil actors in Canada, acting in solidarity with their Southern counterparts, was equally significant. Finally, as Brian Murphy from Inter Pares, has aptly articulated, many Canadian development workers have been profoundly influenced by their Southern counterparts, as well as by the local, regional, and global political landscape that has defined the organized struggles of the South's poor and the powerless.(2)For some who have been immersed in these civil society processes, this history is both encouraging and fraught with issues concerning its future evolution. Pratt rightly establishes the limits of its impact: 'The history of [aid and anti-apartheid] policy initiatives makes it clear that the victories of those promoting more ethically responsive foreign policies will be few and insecure.'(3) He points to the influence of a weakening in the ethical foundations of Canada's welfare state, as well as to long-standing conflicts between ethical approaches and Canada's geopolitical goals and dominant class economic interests. These shifts in priorities are embedded in civil society itself.The recent emergence of the so-called anti-globalization movement is encouraging, however. It comprises diverse political expressions within women's organizations, trade unions, youth and citizens movements worldwide, yet it is united by a common desire to assert the values of human solidarity, rights, and democracy and to work towards new forms of human community. With progressively more disruptive tactics since the ministerial meeting of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Seattle in 1999, this confluence of organizations apparently enjoyed some success in an increasingly polarized debate with the major global financial and trade institutions. …