Bringing War Home: Foreign Policy-Making in Multicultural Societies

Abstract

The debates about multiculturalism, and the democratic conduct of foreign policy, need bringing systematically together. A comparison of state approaches to cultural diversity helps us to understand their interrelationship. For different reasons, neither the United States nor France has experienced a direct link between multiculturalism and foreign policy, as Britain has, but each has the potential to do so. The complexities of social composition, and the growing overlaps between the domestic and international realms, mean that all three states need to revise significantly their understanding of the balance between efficiency and accountability in foreign policy-making, not least because civil peace and international peace are now connected in previously unimaginable ways. It should, nonetheless, be possible to rework practices and principles to allow the state to protect the interests of society as a whole without either scapegoating an internal minority or giving it special privileges.