Printable Version Tell a friend

Foreign Affairs, War, and Peace

Our nation should seek to befriend others, work with them to secure peace and enhance the lives of all, and address the grievances and problems that foster terrorism.  America must work with others on overpopulation, environment, hunger, disease, illiteracy, and unemployment, and encourage development of representative government.

Law and diplomacy must replace force in international decision-making.  Our nation must strengthen, participate equitably in adequate funding of, cooperate with, and use international institutions such as the UN, its agencies, and the International Criminal Court.  Such institutions should be responsible for eliminating international terrorism.

An efficient military ready to defend our country is essential.  

We must use military force only as a last resort.  Our government must renounce the illegal, destabilizing policy of preemptive force when there is no imminent threat to our nation.

Our country should work with other nations to eliminate nuclear weapons, weapons in space, land mines, chemical and biological weapons, and other weapons-related threats to people and the environment.  Nuclear weapons' development must stop.  Existing nuclear weapons should be de-alerted and disposed of in agreed, verifiable stages.  Ballistic missile defense plans should be abandoned.  The international arms trade should be brought under international control.  War industries should receive assistance for converting from military manufacturing to the manufacture of peaceful products.
.  
A Department of Peace should be established to support national policies for a safe and peaceful world.

We can best support our military personnel by not placing them in harm's way unnecessarily.  We support fully meeting all material and medical, including psychological, needs of our active military and veterans.  For those who have served in the military, the Peace Corps, or similar agencies, we support full, lifelong medical care and generous educational, housing, and employment programs.  

We support the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and urge U.S. ratification of the treaties that implement it.  

Foreign aid should be allocated to meet basic needs and encourage human rights.  Our nation must never employ economic sanctions with genocidal effects.

Our country's immigration policies should be fair and applied fairly.  We should offer refuge to victims of oppressive regimes without regard to political persuasion.

We support agreements to expand international trade, provided that they do not erode worker compensation, worker safety, environmental standards, or democratic control.  We oppose fast-track legislation limiting Congress' trade authority.  Our government should block multinational corporations' practices of avoiding U.S. taxes and work for international control of their monopolistic practices.