Iowa,
Corporations and Foreign Relations
Paul Deaton
“It
is time for the United States to end its dalliance with the idea of
corporations playing a significant role in foreign relations.”
At
a political event this week, a Republican office seeker quoted Thomas
Friedman's book, The
World is Flat,
referring to Friedman's discussion of the Dell Computer supply chain
as a way to move towards peace in the world. The idea is that if
everyone has a stake in the supply chain for a major corporation,
they are incentivized to maintain regional stability based upon the
role that supply chain plays in their regional economy.
The
truth is that I like my Dell Inspiron computer, even with its “Made
in China” label. The Microsoft operating system is stable and the
processors and memory are sufficient to run the applications I use
most often. The purchase price was low, lower than the previous Dell
Inspiron I had owned, with more functionality and better technical
specifications. While happy with my computer, I am not ready to give
up on Secretary Clinton and turn the State Department over to Dell or
other global supply chainers.
Back
in the early 1990s, the author worked for Amoco Oil Company which
later merged with British Petroleum, now BP. Amoco was operating in
89 countries at the time and because of this, the local political
environments around the globe became increasingly important to them.
Amoco sold their Iranian land holdings during that time, partly
because of the political instability caused by the Iranian Revolution
of 1979. Amoco had learned a lesson from BP (formerly the
Anglo-Iranian Oil Company) which had all of their Iranian assets
seized without compensation by the revolutionary government. If
corporations deal with the consequences of political instability,
they do so only with regard to stabilizing operations and
profitability. They are more conflict reactionaries than peace
makers. In this sense, Friedman's supply chain metaphor does not
hold.
In
the United States, people with money tend to have gotten rich by
being in, or inheriting wealth created by, business enterprises or
corporations. Because of the money, successful business people
receive respect, especially the respect of politicians. The idea of
privatizing government agencies and functions must have its origins
in this type of respect for corporations and their financial
success.
It
is time for the United States to end its dalliance with the idea of
corporations playing a significant role in foreign relations. When
Halliburton and its subsidiaries secured government contracts for
meal preparation and logistics functions for the military we had no
idea how the names Blackwater and KBR would stain our reputation in
the world. The same could be said for many other multinational
corporations in the chemicals, energy and manufacturing sectors.
If
Republicans seek to stabilize the world political environment using
an economic model with corporations playing a major role, we should
reject their proposals. Corporations may be constituents of our
government, but are no substitute for its governance. Progressives
should reject further corporatism in our society.
Banding
together and voting for progressive candidates is one way to do this.
The Republicans all use the same talking points in every race across
Iowa. In the midterms elections, support Democrats: Braley, Loebsack,
Boswell, Maske, Campbell and Conlin as they are our best hope for
keeping corporations out of foreign relations.
~Paul
Deaton is a native Iowan living in rural Johnson County and weekend
editor of Blog for Iowa. E-mail
Paul Deaton
**Now
through Election Day – Early Voting across Iowa**
Consult
your county auditor for details or
Go
to IowaDemocrats.org
to find out where and how to vote
early in your county.
Blog For Iowa 