Упрощенная HTML-версия
Author : N. Litvak
Assistant Professor, Department of Philosophy, Moscow State Institute (University) of International
Relations, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, Candidate of Science (Sociology)
MORALS ARE A SET OF RULES of social behavior
based on opinions that declare some values true and
others false and determines the relationships between
people. Morals are not values. The common treatment
of morals as rules endowed with the values of kind-
ness, humanity and fairness is wrong. This refers to
morals in general while there are types of morals that
treat different values as true. In any case we should
clearly understand how different people or societies
interpret or define the same values of kindness or fair-
ness.
Democracy means freedom of people; it is one of the most important and indispensable features
of democracy. Its "export" does not mean that is freely chosen - it is imposed from outside.
It is interesting to discuss the moral element in the foreign policy and diplomacy of France in this
context. My choice is determined by its historical primacy and important contribution into such
spheres as contemporary diplomacy and diplomatic service, human rights and morals in foreign
policy.
In the last quarter of the twentieth century, France was engaged in military operations - in Chad,
Zaire, Lebanon, Mauritania, CAR, Iraq, Somalia, Rwanda, and the Balkans. And it was especially
belligerent after having resolutely denounced the use of force.
French operations in the Middle East are especially illustrative: for many decades, the bourgeois
and social democrats alike have preferred to ignore problems related to human rights, the rights of
women and, especially, of all sorts of minorities. A new wave of interest in the problem of values
and morals in foreign policy was raised by the Arab Spring assessed by the French politicians and
the French public as unexpected, unpredicted, etc. As a result, French diplomacy, its information
and analytical achievements and its abilities were subjected to severe criticism.
The French politicians, experts and diplomats are fully aware of the situation in which their country
should survive by all means. Yet the question remains: Is their foreign policy moral? An abstract or
subjective approach to morals as an allegedly possible unambiguous solution of the good/evil prob-
lem makes French policy pragmatic, even more so since it pursues the supreme national interests.
It seems that the young diplomats will find their jobs much harder: the principles of the universal
human rights deeply rooted in French history and culture are popular among the younger generation.
While the retired ambassadors who today reveal the discovered post factum divergences between
what their politicians had declared and what they had done, the students would have no illusions.
We will live and see how they will cope in practice.
http://interaffairs.ru
Morals in the Foreign Policy and Diplomacy of Contemporary
France