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Pax
Democratica: A Strategy for the 21st Century
James Robert Huntley
Foreword
This
is a book which looks at the world differently—differently
from the way the policy pundits, media denizens and foreign
policy experts are wont to do. The author, James Huntley, rests his case on a fundamental
truth, often overlooked: that the ‘foreign’ relations of the
United States and its highly-developed partners are no longer
‘foreign’ in the old sense. Over the past half-century, we have become thoroughly
enmeshed in one another’s economies, societies and political
networks. Interdependence
is no longer a convenient slogan, it is an inescapable fact
of modern life for Americans and all others who aspire to
keep up with a transparently interconnected world.
Our
interdependence has grown out of the inexorable interlocking
of modern scientific and technological development, instant
communication (the Internet and Worldwide Web are merely the
latest manifestations) and rapid transport of people and goods. Borders have become increasingly less relevant.
The
United States has exercised world leadership since 1945 because
no other nation was able to do so, nor would be accepted by
the other powers. Successive
U.S. administrations used this leadership for the most part
wisely by promoting, as a first priority , the institutionalization
of joint effort among the democratic allies. The reason is simple: the other democracies’ views
of the world and their aims and interests most closely approximated
ours, and our leaders understood this. We worked together well and, in the process, began
to form a series of communities of interest and joint endeavour
which have stood us—and the entire world, for that matter—in
good stead. The
most important ties have been institutionalized and made more
or less permanent in such bodies as NATO, the OECD, the European
Union and their ancillaries. Moreover, much of the way the democratic allies conduct
themselves in more universal bodies, such as the United Nations,
reflects their open, democratic, free market goals and methods
and—increasingly—world sentiment as a whole.
Now,
Mr Huntley contends, it is time to take stock of what we have
wrought in these historic years, to survey the greatly changed
world scene since the Cold War’s end, to reassess the interests
and goals of the great democracies, and to plan anew for a
future which will continue to be more and more interdependent. For this new era, which might become the Era of the
Democracies if we wish it, the democracies will require a
group global perspective, they will need to re-define and
re-state the principles of the democratic way of life, and
they must develop improved common methods for attacking common
problems.
But
what we have won, often with great difficulty, must however
not be thrown away during a deceptive lull in world affairs. No overriding great Crisis of Survival currently threatens
us, but I believe one will surely come, sometime in the next
few years, to tax and strain this half-built international
system. It is
time now, not just when we think we can afford to shift
our focus from pressing national concerns, to undertake the
reassessment and renovation of the international system. Back to the drawing boards. Mr Huntley suggests how we should begin.
After
years of service in diplomacy, think tanks, and what we today
are calling ‘international civil society’—James Huntley retired
to the western edge of the American continent to set down
what he believed he had learned about war and peace and the
importance of democracy. His geographic and intellectual vantage point is unusual. However, it is not on the margins but at the very centre
of what ought to be a forthcoming great debate, on the future
of world order.
My
friendship with James Huntley goes back a quarter-century. We have laboured in different institutional vineyards,
but our paths have crossed many times as we worked to consolidate
and build the Atlantic alliance and the larger Atlantic-Pacific
community of democracies. I urge readers of Pax Democratica to ponder carefully
what Mr. Huntley
has to say, because it is based on long experience and careful
analysis, and provides a fresh—even rare—perspective on our
future. There
may be other, or additional, ways to accomplish the goals
which he proposes, but the aims and the principles seem to
me incontestable.
The
wars, hot and cold, and the obscene dictatorships of this
century have taught us much. While survival is always an ultimate goal, democrats—and
Americans in particular—have persistently asked, ‘Survival
for what?’ And
the fundamental answer returns persistently: for the liberty
without which life can have little meaning. We now see the United States, as the present millennium
ends, poised at the centre of two interlocking communities,
based on liberty, which it has laboured for years to create. These are an international, an Atlantic and a Pacific
community. In
building this new kind of international institution, democracy
and human rights have been central concerns. If the great allied democracies had any fundamental
reason to unite as they have, it was for these indispensable
and precious principles.
First
principles, however necessary, are insufficient. Principles must be embedded in policies and structures
that abet action. Absent
the requisite ‘political will’, resting on publics that are
at least moderately agitated about the international system,
may will ask how major changes in policy can possibly be undertaken? Our present leaders, and even more the electorates
in all the great democracies, seem disinclined to put a priority
on their closest foreign entanglements. Domestic concerns can always seem more urgent. But this current prevailing ‘wisdom’ argues strongly
for leaders to launch just such an appeal as James Huntley
makes. The better-informed,
better-educated, more-concerned and most authoritative people
in every corner of our democratic societies need to put this
case for fundamental change to their publics.
History
suggests that strong leadership can on occasion generate
political will. It
has been my own experience that the profoundly good things
of this century did not just happen. They were created through the unremitting work of individuals-
leading democrats in several countries- who harnessed themselves
together in the service of ideals and a vision. Such ideas are embodied in this book. Read on.
The
Honorable LAWRENCE S. EAGLEBURGER Charlottesville, Virginia
1997
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