Framing Effective Foreign Policy

Suggested Activities

In this challenge, students investigate the role of foreign policy in promoting internationalism as they assess the effectiveness of various foreign policy actions, and then, as representatives of a particular perspective, students attempt to reach consensus on a mutually beneficial response to three international issues.

A.  Rate the effectiveness of various foreign policy responses to an assigned international issue.

Speculate on meanings of key terms
Divide the class into groups of three or four students and provide each group with the following list of foreign policy options:

• foreign aid
• supranationalism
• multilateralism
• peacekeeping
• international law
• international agreements.

Challenge students to develop tentative definitions for each term by using the following strategies to decode their meaning:

• Look at the parts of each word.
• Identify parts you already know and think about their meaning.
• Think of an example of an action or event depicted by the each word.

If students need assistance in developing tentative definitions, provide them with an example of each term as illustrated below.

Ask each group to share tentative definitions with the class.

To structure this activity, you may want to adapt the chart Defining Terms (Support Material).

Match examples to the definitions
Provide each group of students with a few one-sentence examples of each of the terms; e.g., Canada sends 5 million dollars to Cuba to help local farmers. Ask students to use the tentative definitions to help them match each example with the relevant foreign policy option. Based on the information from the examples, invite each group to refine its tentative definitions. Remind students that an effective definition satisfies the following criteria:

• accurately represents the meaning of the term
• is concise
• clearly explains the term for all to understand.

Arrange for students to share their definitions with the rest of the class.

Examples of each term and refined definitions are found in Key Foreign Policy Options (Background Information).

Prepare issue profiles
Before asking students to assess the merits of each of the foreign policy options, prepare three brief profiles on different issues—at least one of which has global implications and one of which has regional implications. For example, if one of the topics is the AIDS crisis in Africa, the profile might contain the following:

• recent statistics on rates of AIDS in selected African countries
• descriptions of the disastrous human loss and the destruction of economic structures of entire regions
• mention of the availability of drugs to control rates of infection and the inaccessible cost of these drugs
• indications of the international efforts that have been attempted.

Possible topics for these profiles are listed below.

World poverty

• world disparity; e.g., per capita income figures for selected least developed countries and developed countries, access to water, life expectancy and literacy rates

Global warming

• evidence of global warming and potential dangers in the near future if nothing is done to change this

Pollution of parts of a country by a foreign-owned company

• mining gold in Brazil
• maquiladoras in Mexico and the unusual rates of cancer among the workers

Debate over control of an important waterway

• Canada's northern passage—how to establish sovereignty?

Water drawn from one country to supply another

• Sudan and Egypt
• Canada and the United States— southwestern states' growing need for fresh water

Human rights abuses taking place at hands of own government

• Sudan, Darfur—the government allows the Janjaweed to practice genocide
• Chinese government's treatment of the Falun Gong
• Harvesting of body parts in Chinese prisons

Depletion and extinction of natural resources

• Exploitation of rain forest leading to likely extinction of several species
• Destruction of sea life through overfishing

Economic dumping of manufactured goods from one country to another

• U.S. claims of cheap imports from China
• China's complaints of dumping of cheap medicines from India.

To meet the diverse learning needs of students, consider adjusting the number of profiles and/or topics.

Rate foreign policy options
Provide each group of students with one of the three profiles. Instruct the groups to discuss and identify the foreign policy approach used to address their assigned issue. Ask each group to assess the effectiveness of the foreign policy action and to consider alternative approaches, based on the previously discussed six foreign policy options. Ask students to ensure that six responses are assessed—one from each of the six foreign policy options discussed. Emphasize that a key concern is the ability to resolve the assigned issue in a way that promotes internationalism; i.e., the well-being of the world community. In rating each option, ask students to consider the following four criteria for viable options:

• has significant potential to resolve the issue to the benefit of the world community
• is affordable or feasible
• is culturally and ethically acceptable
• will have minimal adverse effects.

To structure and assess this activity, you may want to adapt one of the charts and assessment rubric in Rating Options (Support Material).

B.  As a representative of a particular perspective, attempt to reach consensus on a mutually beneficial response to three international issues.

Assign perspectives for a mock United Nations summit (Summative assessment)
Distribute the student task sheet Mock UN Summit (Lesson Material). Explain to students that they are about to participate as representatives of a particular perspective in a mock UN summit on the three international issues you have profiled. Assign three students, representing each of the three profiled issues, to work together to represent one of the following 11 perspectives:

• member of government in an African country
• member of government in a European country
• member of government in an Asian country
• member of government in a South American country
• member of government in a North American country
• United Nations official
• environmentalist
• CEO of a major multinational corporation
• head of a large labour organization
• representative of an international association of Aboriginal peoples
• representative of an international association of nongovernmental aid organizations.

Develop proposals from the assigned perspectives
Allow groups time to ask questions and research their assigned perspective on each of the three issues. Encourage students to review the assessments of the various foreign policy options to help in reaching recommendations from their group's perspective on the most appropriate response to each of the international issues.

To structure gathering of information to support recommendations, you may want to adapt one of the charts in Recording Our Research (Support Material).

Participate in a mock UN discussion
When conducting the mock UN forum, invite each group of representatives to share their proposed foreign policy actions and the reasons for their judgement on each of the three international issues. The goal is for all members of the global community to arrive at consensus on how to deal with each of the issues. Remind students of the criteria for viable options when trying to reach consensus on the response:

• has significant potential to resolve the issue to the benefit of the world community
• is affordable or feasible
• is culturally and ethically acceptable
• will have minimal adverse effects.

Encourage students to take notes during the forum on the following:

• their assigned role's opinion and supporting reasons
• other roles' opinions and supporting reasons
• eventual consensus or majority opinion on the issue
• each student's personal post-forum opinion.

For instructions on teaching and assessing student participation in consensus building, see Reaching Group Consensus (Modelling the Tools).

Extension: Reflect on consensus building
Ask students to write about the attempt to reach consensus on one of the international issues. Their reflections should focus on student actions and attitudes that may have contributed to either the achievement or the failure to reach consensus.