The Morality of International Diplomacy

Moral Maze

BBC

Society & Culture, Religion & Spirituality

4.4 • 623 Ratings

🗓️ 14 June 2018

⏱️ 43 minutes

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Summary

These are difficult days for diplomats; President Trump has torn up the rule-book. In just a few hours he went from firing off a salvo of angry tweets criticising America's G7 allies to embracing Kim Jong-un, the leader of North Korea - seen for decades as a rogue state - in an historic summit. Mr Trump's supporters see a man who gets things done in the interests of the people who elected him. As the Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson put it recently, "Imagine Trump doing Brexit... There would be all sorts of breakdowns, there would be all sorts of chaos, but you might get somewhere." Others shudder at the breakdowns in communication, the name-calling and what they insist is a threat to economic freedom and global stability. They believe that international relations should serve higher moral ideals of loyalty and the common good rather than the mere pursuit of national self-interest. While many applaud the historic talks with North Korea this week, others question whether talking to tyrants proves that morality is dead in international relations. Is there a moral duty to do our trade deals and make our alliances with nations that respect human rights? Or should we abandon the idea that some countries are simply beyond the pale? Witnesses are Sir Robert Cooper, Dr Philip Cunliffe, Dr Jan Halper-Hayes and Dr Leslie Vinjamuri.

Producer: Dan Tierney.

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to a program from BBC Radio 4.
0:03.7	Good evening. The CIA, apparently, nicknamed Kim Jong-un, the cute leader, black humour, of course.
0:09.8	This is a tyrant who reportedly fed his uncle to a pack of dogs and blew one of his ministers to eternity from an anti-aircraft gun.
0:16.9	He runs North Korea as a nuclear-armed slave state, where according to the World Food Program, four out of five people are undernourished.
0:23.5	So much so, the average adult is nearly six inches shorter than those in the South.
0:27.8	Yet this week, the leader of the free world said he was honoured to meet him and describe him as a great personality, smart and very talented.
0:36.2	Donald Trump has turned the diplomatic world upside down, only a couple of days earlier.
0:40.2	He had trashed his closest ally in a disagreement about trade.
0:43.8	Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada, just about the most blameless country on earth,
0:48.6	was weak and dishonest.
0:50.1	One of his advisers even said he should burn in hell.
0:53.1	Just what's been achieved by the Kim Trump meeting is as yet unclear.
0:57.0	Opinion seems sharply divided,
0:58.6	between those who see it as a bold and imaginative move
1:01.3	to pull a rogue state back from the brink
1:03.7	and those who see it as an appeasement of state cruelty, a surrender to tyranny.
1:08.7	The narrow question is what's the right way to deal with dangerous tyrants?
1:12.8	The wider issue is what part should morality play in diplomacy?
1:16.8	Should international relations be about loyalty, the common good and human rights,
1:21.3	or about self-interest and pragmatism, the ends, justifying the means?
1:25.6	That's our moral maze tonight.
1:27.0	The panel, Claire Fox from the Academy of Ideas,
	...

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