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Outline
Introduction
The Role of Media in Foreign Policy
The Role of Business in Foreign Policy
The Role of Banking in Foreign Policy
The Role of NGOs in Foreign Policy
The Role of the Clergy in Foreign Policy
The Role of the Traveling Public in Foreign Policy
The Role of Individual Citizens in Foreign Policy
Citizens Shape the Foreign Policy of the "Free Nation"
Readings
Numerous non-governmental actors currently play important roles in shaping and implementing national foreign policy in the "big government" nations of the world. In a future "free nation"—a nation with a minimal government—these actors increase in importance and become the singular determinants of, and implementers of, foreign policy for the "free nation."
In "big government" nations, government actors play a major role in shaping and implementing foreign policy. Elected legislators and executives make policy, then rely on government military forces, domestic and international government courts, inter-government treaties and alliances, and government foreign service officers to implement those policies. But, there are many lesser known and lesser understood non-governmental actors who also play important roles in shaping and implementing foreign policy.
Non-governmental actors important in foreign policy include the media, business community, banking and financial management systems, non-governmental independent organizations, the clergy, national citizens living and traveling abroad, and the general public.
The Role of Media in Foreign Policy
Newspapers and the electronic media shape public opinion concerning foreign nations and foreign affairs through their news reporting, and information gathering and dissemination activities. In a "big government" nation, the media operates both in cooperation with, and at variance with, government officials, politicians and the professional foreign service. The media sometimes promotes official government policy, disseminates official information and provides credibility to government officials and government policy. Other times the media contradicts government officials, official government policy and official information. Critics contend the media is often reactive in foreign policy, rather than proactive; the media allows government to set the foreign policy agenda and to focus attention of specific foreign policy issues and targeted nations. Critics contend the media should investigate, report, and comment on foreign affairs independent of government leadership.
In a "free nation," the media is free of government leadership, and is more likely to act independently and proactively. The media in a "free nation" plays an important role in shaping public opinion about foreign policy issues, events and personalities, and in shaping public opinion regarding the nations and people of the world.
The Role of Business in Foreign Policy
The national business community bestows both blessings and sanctions on foreign nations through power over the supply and demand for resources and finished goods and services, and over the international flow of funds, information, technology, and capital. The business impact of current multi-national corporations and the combined impact of individual domestic manufacturing, marketing, and trading companies rivals the current impact of government foreign aid and assistance.
The impact of the business community on both foreign governments and foreign peoples remains in a "free nation" even after the impact of government withers away. Publicly held (stock) corporations and privately held corporations, partnerships and proprietorships conduct international business which furthers both the economic interests and foreign policy interests of the owners of business, and the citizens of the "free nation."
The Role of Banking in Foreign Policy
The international banking and financial management system supports government policy through loans to developing nations for infrastructure and industrial development, loans for humanitarian activities, loans to foreign businesses and foreign governments in support of international trade, debt restructuring, debt "forgiveness," exchange-rate management, and a host of other operations. Government encourages, sanctions, or bars international banking and financial activities through tax incentives, trade laws, and direct regulation.
In a "free nation," banking and financial management companies further their own corporate interests in the international flow of funds, and, in the process, shape some of the foreign policy for the "free nation."
The Role of the NGOs in Foreign Policy
Non-governmental independent philanthropic organizations (NGOs) express national humanitarian interests and concerns by transferring funds, ideas, technology, manpower, and material aid to nations and peoples deemed in need of support, and worthy of support. NGOs also withhold these resources from nations and peoples deemed unworthy. In the current era of "big government," NGOs work both in support of government policies and programs and, occasionally, in contradiction to those policies and programs. In the latter capacity, NGOs serve as an avenue for expressing public concerns at variance with official government policy; through NGOs, individual citizens support nations, peoples, issues and causes the individuals choose to support, even if official government policy is to withhold support. However, critics claim, like the media, NGOs tend to react to government actions and policies and submit to governmental leadership rather than pursuing an independent course to identify foreign needs and provide avenues for the public to express its independent humanitarian concerns.
In a "free nation," NGOs serve as avenues for individual citizens and organized interest groups to pursue humanitarian and public policy interests around the globe. Some NGOs are temporary organizations responding to an immediate need or concern. Other NGOs are permanent, on-going institutions (e.g. the Red Cross) which provide long-term continuity for the foreign policy of the "free nation" and help the nation maintain a permanent presence in foreign nations. One, or more, of the permanent NGOs will assume many of the functions currently performed by government-run embassies and consulates, providing support for "free nation" citizens traveling abroad, serving as information centers for foreign businesses, providing advice to leaders of foreign governments, assisting foreign nationals seeking "free nation" citizenship, and serving a variety of other functions.
The Role of the Clergy in Foreign Policy
Clergy express both the humanitarian and spiritual concerns of their nations and their congregations, transferring resources to needy and deserving nations and peoples, and promoting specific religious ideals and values around the world. Clergy, and the religious organizations which support them, act much like other non-governmental independent organizations, but with an added twist. The clergy couple their humanitarianism with a spiritual and moral mission.
In a "free nation," clerical proselytizing concerning ideals and values increases as a foreign policy activity, with both traditional clergy and secular philosophers traveling the world promoting particular points of view.
The Role of the Traveling Public in Foreign Policy
National citizens living and traveling abroad each play a role in shaping foreign policy. These citizens play a major role in information transfer; they provide information to their visited nations concerning their home nation, and bring information about visited nations back to fellow citizens in the home nation. Travelers serve as alternative information sources to official government sources and the media. Travelers also spend money, promote causes, and encourage inter-cultural understanding as they move throughout the globe.
In a "free nation," the role and influence of travelers in information transfer, the flow of funds and the dissemination of values, policies and cultural artifacts increases.
The Role of Individual Citizens in Foreign Policy
Finally, the mass public shapes and implements foreign policy indirectly through its influence on government leaders, non-governmental organizations, businesses and religious organizations, and the media. In "big government" nations, the government limits its citizens' direct personal action in foreign affairs. Governments use tax codes, passport and visa controls, import and export licenses, business law, criminal statutes, and the power to revoke citizenship as tools to severely restrict the rights of their citizens to engage in direct citizen-to-foreign-government activity, or to intervene directly in the politics and domestic affairs of foreign nations. Governments also restrict the activities of businesses, banks, the media, clerics and NGOs.
In a "free nation," current government restrictions on citizen action in foreign affairs are abolished, allowing citizens to provide direct financial, material and manpower support to foreign nations, and chosen groups and individuals within those nations. Citizens enter politics in foreign nations, hold administrative and legislative posts in foreign nations, join foreign military organizations, operate businesses and industries in foreign nations, and provide active support to anti-government dissident and rebel forces. Citizens of a "free nation" are free to pursue their individual foreign policy objectives free of limit or harassment by government. Businesses, banks, the media, clerics and NGOs are also free to pursue their foreign policy objectives free of limit or harassment by government.
Citizens Shape the Foreign Policy of the "Free Nation"
The foreign policy of a "free nation" is shaped, not by government, but by the individual citizens of the "free nation." As travelers or business people, citizens express their individual interests and concerns as they travel or conduct business. As members of non-governmental organizations, religious organizations, and corporations, they express their collective concerns. In some instances, citizens of the "free nation" find themselves working at cross purposes with each other; some citizens pursue objectives that benefit themselves but harm the interests of fellow citizens. But, for the most part, the common values, beliefs and interests binding the citizens of the "free nation" together as a nation, also provide a common foundation for their foreign policy decisions.
The cumulative effect of this individual and collective action is the establishment of a more or less coherent and rational foreign policy for the "free nation," a foreign policy that more directly and succinctly reflects the true interests of the citizens of a "free nation" than any government or system of representative democratic decision-making ever could.
Since the foreign policy of the "free nation" is developed by individual citizens, acting alone or collectively, rather than by a centralized government structure, the foreign policy reflects individual concerns rather than government concerns. Foreign policy in "big government" nations is based on considerations of "balance of power," national security, geopolitics, government administrative and bureaucratic infighting, and defense of allied nations. Foreign policy in a "free nation" is based on personal values, personal beliefs, personal self-interest, peaceful settlement of disputes, and a significant degree of insularity and isolation from the "big government" nations of the world.
Even the tools used in the conduct of foreign policy are different. "Big government" nations rely heavily on military power, treaties, international collective security arrangements, international forums (e.g. the United Nations), and national spies and agents. The "free nation" is unable to field a military machine and has little use for spies and agents. The "free nation" lacks a mechanism to negotiate treaties, participate in collective security, or debate in international forums. Instead, the "free nation" relies on person-to-person and group-to-group gifts and aid, business transactions, the flow of humanitarian and investment funds, activities of citizens living, traveling or doing business abroad, and the persuasive power of its national culture as tools to further individual and collective foreign policy interests.
The differences in both the foreign policy considerations pursued by the "free nation," and its choice of tools for implementing foreign policy, serve to dramatically contrast policies of the "free nation" with its "big government" counterparts. The long-term effect of the contrast may be to undermine public support in "big government" nations for government-beneficial foreign policy considerations like "balance of power," geopolitics, and collective security. These considerations provide benefits to government in government efforts to perpetuate itself, but provide few substantive benefits to individual citizens living in "big government" nations—other than the dubious benefits of going to war against the citizens of other nations in support of these considerations or assuming a massive tax burden to fund the government's foreign policy machinery. Individual citizens around the world see the considerations underlying their national foreign policies, and the foreign policy tools used by their government to implement those considerations, as counter to their individual and personal interests. As a consequence, they move one step closer to demanding "free nations" for themselves.D
READINGS:
Bennett, W. Lance. News: The Politics of Illusion. Longman, 1996.
Ikenberry, G. John, ed. American Foreign Policy: Theoretical Essays. Scott, Foresman and Company, 1989.
Kegley, Charles W. and Eugene R. Wittkopf. American Foreign Policy: Pattern and Process. St. Martin's, 1991.
Schweizer, Steven L. Imagining World Politics. Prentice Hall, 1997.
Gordon Neal Diem is Assistant Professor of Political Science at North Carolina Central University and a Lieutenant Colonel in the U. S. Army Reserve. His text, American Foreign Policy: Principles and Personalities, will be published on CD-ROM by Telikon Electronic Publishing, Spring 1998.
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