Foreign Policy: 2nd Piece of the Puzzle
by John Rensenbrink

Dear Greens on all shores,

      I continue with the thoughts I've had coming out of the Paris Congress. In the previous post, the first piece of the puzzle, I described the key challenge facing the European Union (which is the domination of European and of world politics by the U.S. government super power) and the thinking of thoughtful and high office holding Greens in Europe about this.I put their dilemma as one of creating a strong and independent Europe (something that will inevitably face U.S. resistance and possibly mounting anxiety) without causing a breach with the world's only super power, and without relying on a resurgence of European military power to do it. This latter is a matter of crucial importance to Greens, to our philosphy of non-violence, and to the hope of a peaceful and cooperative world. By insisting that Europe be a union of Family members, by practicing the principles of cooperation among themselves and in relation to the world at large, the Greens of Europe hope to infuse the new Europe with the inner strength and discipline necessay to achieve a cooperative partnership with the U.S. and thus also with the rest of the world.

      These are bright hopes and deep strategy at the same time. One can only applaud and support such thinking and such action.

      There comes into view here a 2nd Piece to the puzzle. It concerns the prospects for tempering, maybe indeed transforming, the U.S. Government's posture and behavior towards Europe and the world. Can a new Europe hope to temper U.S. hegemonical policies and designs? (Some voices in the current raging debate over Kosovo describe the U.S. as intent on liberal imperialism, probably an apt term).Can a new Europe find and achieve a new relationship with the U.S. so that the U.S., too, drops its dreams of liberal imperialism, control, and hegemony, and becomes a partner with others in the world? So the second piece directly puts the spotlight on the internal situation in the U.S. and also in Canada. Specifically, it concerns the prospects of the Green Party in the U.S. and in Canada. Will these parties and their allies be able to apply sufficient pressure on the liberal imperialist regime in the United States to temper, change and (hopefully!) transform that regime so that the United States will behave more like a member of a world Family, or, in my preferred language, more like a true Republic of free citizens?

      The answer to that is, only if the Green Party in the United States and in Canada becomes strong enough. How much is enough we don't know, but stronger, much stronger, than we are now.

      The major point I want to make here is that on both sides of the Atlantic (and elsewhere in the world as well, of course) the Greens need to help and support one another and that means to work hard at understanding our different but nevertheless common dilemmas and tasks that must be performed if we are to help save ourselves and this planet. I only want to point out the inter-relationships, the different pieces, that together constitute a growing basis for a truly global set of guidelines and action.

      One could say much about this second piece, but suffice it to say that we Greens in the U.S. and in Canada need to focus hard on issues of power and the structuring of power in our respective countries and to put uppermost those actions that will build a new political power, a Green party, which together with its allies, can actually change the direction of government and public policy. In this we would begin to parallel what our Green brothers and sisters are doing in Europe.

      And, to our brothers and sisters in Europe, I would plead with them to distinguish in their speaking and in their thinking between the U.S. government as presently constituted and imperially driven on the one hand and the people of the United States on the other hand. The people are by and large locked out of their government, this is no longer "the land of the free". The majority of citizens have simply opted out of politics in varying degrees of skepticism, cynicism, and selfish absorption in their own personal affairs -- these behaviors are symptomatic of the fundamental exclusion from politics they have syffered during the past several decades. So this fact needs to be understood by Greens in Europe and everywhere else as well. Otherwise we will not understand each other and we will not be able to act effectively together.

      There are several more pieces to the puzzle of a global politics that Greens need to bring into view side by side with the first two that I have identified here and in the previous post. They are: the distinct and unique reality of the South and its distinct and unique set of problems that interface wickedly with the present domination of the North; next, the Multinational Corporate hold on the world via globalization and such arbitrary institutions as the World Trade Organization; next, the rise and potential of the Green federations on the various continents; next, the problematic reality of the United Nations and the corresponding need, which the Greens can and must fill, for a vision of a world political economy and a truly democratic planetary government; and, finally, a working guideline regarding the principle of non-violence and the use of military force. This last surfaced to a degree at Paris, it is very much in our minds now that the bombs are falling in Yugoslavia. It requires a lot of our attention, both in principle and in practice.

      I'm not sure I will be able to develop all these pieces, and I am also quite sure that there are others of equal importance. But for now, I think I have pointed to major critical elements, or pieces of the puzzle, that must be kept in mind as we develop a global Green message between now and our meeting in Canberra Australia at Easter time in the year 2001.

In the Green spirit,

John Rensenbrink