{"id":72312,"date":"2022-05-03T12:31:50","date_gmt":"2022-05-03T02:31:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?p=72312"},"modified":"2022-05-03T12:31:50","modified_gmt":"2022-05-03T02:31:50","slug":"double-standards-are-normal-in-foreign-policy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/double-standards-are-normal-in-foreign-policy\/","title":{"rendered":"Double standards are normal in foreign policy"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/figure>\n

What is it about some Westerners that makes them so singularly lacking in self-awareness as they assume a position of moral and intellectual superiority to issue condescending pronouncements on non-Westerners? In their chapter in the 1999 book The power of human rights<\/em><\/a>, Thomas Risse and Stephen Ropp wrote: \u2018Pressure by Western states and international organizations can greatly increase the vulnerability of norm-violating governments to external influences.\u2019<\/p>\n

I can still remember being startled, when I first read that sentence, by the unconscious arrogance it betrayed in dividing the world into non-Western governments as errant norm-violators and Western governments as virtuous norm-setters and norm-enforcers. When I worked at the United Nations, I lost count of the number of times African and Asian diplomats complained about the continued hold of the white man\u2019s burden<\/a> on Westerners\u2019 dealings with the rest of the world.<\/p>\n

Edward Luce pointed out<\/a> in the Financial Times<\/em> on 24 March that in saying Russia has been \u2018globally isolated\u2019 over Ukraine, the West \u2018is mistaking its own unity for a global consensus\u2019. True, 141 of the UN\u2019s 193 member states voted to condemn Russia\u2019s invasion in a General Assembly resolution<\/a> on 2 March. But the 52 non-Western countries that didn\u2019t, including half the African countries, account for more than half the world\u2019s population and include democracies like Bangladesh, Mongolia, Namibia, South Africa and Sri Lanka. Because India is the most prominent and consequential of these, many commentators continue to ask: \u2018Why does India get a free pass<\/a> for supporting Russia?\u2019<\/p>\n

By contrast, and echoing Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison\u2019s earlier careful differentiation of India\u2019s public neutrality on the Ukraine war from China\u2019s (there\u2019s no moral equivalence<\/a> between India\u2019s and China\u2019s abstentions on UN votes on Ukraine, \u2018not even remotely,\u2019 he said), during his recent visit to India, UK PM Boris Johnson noted<\/a> that Indian PM Narendra Modi had intervened \u2018several times\u2019 with Russian President Vladimir Putin \u2018to ask him what on earth he thinks he is doing\u2019. India, he added, wants peace and not Russians in\u00a0Ukraine. He was followed by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who expressed keen interest in partnering with India in renewable energies<\/a> as a way of Europe\u2019s \u2018diversifying away\u2019 from Russian oil and gas.<\/p>\n

These views validate the claim by an Indian official<\/a>, and broaden it to Western capitals more generally, that there\u2019s been \u2018a belated, but grudging, acceptance of India\u2019s position within the US administration\u2019. Such official understanding of India\u2019s careful balancing act and nuanced policies is absent from much public commentary.<\/p>\n

Foreign policy is not about virtue-signalling morality but about acting in the best interests of citizens. Every country\u2019s policy is based on a mix of geopolitical and economic calculations (realism) and core values and principles (idealism). Consequently, no country\u2019s policy is consistent and coherent, and none is immune from mistakes, hypocrisy and double standards, even if some are guilty more often and more gravely than others. It cannot be, therefore, that when Western governments downplay values, as in the long-running and brutal Yemen conflict, it\u2019s realpolitik, but silence about atrocities in Ukraine by others is complicity with evil.<\/p>\n

India\u2019s Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar pointedly remarked<\/a> on 11 April in Washington that since sanctions were imposed by NATO on Russia, India\u2019s monthly oil imports from Russia were probably less than<\/a> European energy imports in one afternoon. At the prestigious annual Raisina Dialogue in New Delhi on the 26th, Jaishankar gave similarly sharp answers to questions from the foreign ministers of Norway and Luxembourg. Last year, he reminded them, the rules-based order came under threat in Asia after the West\u2019s hasty departure from Afghanistan<\/a> and Asians were left to deal with the aftermath. India\u2019s security interests<\/a> were heavily impacted by the chaotic withdrawal that was all exit and no strategy. On 22 April, the UK\u2019s Daily Telegraph<\/em> reported that since the EU arms embargo on Russia imposed after the annexation of Crimea in 2014, France and Germany had sold \u20ac273 million worth of arms<\/a> to Russia that were likely being used in the war in Ukraine.<\/p>\n

On 24 April, Morrison said a Chinese military base<\/a> in Solomon Islands would be an unacceptable red line. A White House statement<\/a> after President Joe Biden\u2019s top Pacific adviser Kurt Campbell met with Solomons PM Manasseh\u00a0Sogavare said that if \u2018a de facto permanent military presence, power-projection capabilities, or a military installation\u2019 were to be established there by China, the US would have \u2018significant concerns and respond accordingly\u2019. This is not dissimilar to how Russia reacted to its red lines being crossed by Ukraine and NATO, as South African President Cyril Ramaphosa<\/a> noted. The Solomons are 1,700 kilometres from Australia\u2019s coast, while Russia and Ukraine share a land border and Kyiv is only 755 kilometres from Moscow (directly comparable to Ottawa\u2013Washington).<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a more complete understanding among the Australian, British, European and US governments today that India\u2019s dependence on Russian arms is a legacy posture that doesn\u2019t reflect current trajectories. The dependence arose as much from restrictive US arms export policies in the past as from India\u2019s preferences. The visible deficiencies of Russian arms in the Ukraine war will accelerate India\u2019s shift away from them. Russia\u2019s reduced economic weight under the impact of Western sanctions will also make it a less attractive partner.<\/p>\n

Indian statements on the Russian invasion and atrocities against civilians have hardened over time, albeit without naming Russia. India offers possibilities for reducing Western dependence on the Chinese market and factories (cue the recent Australia\u2013India trade-liberalising agreement<\/a>) and also on Russian energy. And India is critical to an array of Western goals in the Indo-Pacific.<\/p>\n

After the 2+2 ministerial meeting in Washington on 11 April, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin described the US\u2013India relationship as a \u2018cornerstone of security in the Indo-Pacific<\/a>\u2019. Secretary of State Antony Blinken acknowledged<\/a> that India\u2013Russia relations developed in the decades when the US \u2018was not able to be a partner to India\u2019. Today, however, the US is \u2018able and willing to be a partner of choice with India across virtually every realm: commerce, technology, education and security\u2019. Most Indians reciprocate that sentiment, but India can better help advance Western goals, including as a source of influence over other countries, as a demonstrably independent actor in world affairs than as a mere US cypher.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What is it about some Westerners that makes them so singularly lacking in self-awareness as they assume a position of moral and intellectual superiority to issue condescending pronouncements on non-Westerners? In their chapter in the …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":555,"featured_media":72315,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[285,69,1932,714],"class_list":["post-72312","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-foreign-policy","tag-india","tag-the-west","tag-ukraine"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nDouble standards are normal in foreign policy | The Strategist<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/double-standards-are-normal-in-foreign-policy\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Double standards are normal in foreign policy | The Strategist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"What is it about some Westerners that makes them so singularly lacking in self-awareness as they assume a position of moral and intellectual superiority to issue condescending pronouncements on non-Westerners? 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