International development cooperation (IDC) is an activity that undoubtedly appeals to the most human side of international relations. After the disastrous Second World War, it was necessary to rethink the way in which the various peoples of humanity wanted to treat each other. The creation of the UN system contributed to the vision of a more cooperative world through international institutions, and it was be Harry S. Truman pronounced, in 1949, the famous Four Points speech, in which he stressed the desire to contribute to the growth of underdeveloped areas through «economic and financial» aid.
For Mexico, the IDC is not a small thing, since it is part of the pillars of our country’s foreign policy specified in Article 89 of the Constitution. Since 2011, at the institutional level, Mexico uses the IDC Law proposed by the diplomat – and then senator for the PRI – Rosario Green. This Law gave way to the creation of the Mexican Agency of IDC (AMEXCID), which «establishes processes of inter-institutional coordination and with non-governmental actors, and generates tools and instruments for planning, monitoring and evaluation of the IDC».
Thus, Mexico has various tools to implement its IDC, but is there political will to exercise it? Several experts, such as Juan Pablo Prado, Jorge Schiavon or Bruno Figueroa, have been critical towards the lack of political will of the previous governments (PAN-PRI) that has resulted in the AMEXCID’s sub-optimal functionality. So, why could it be encouraging that this regime change might have a positive impact on Mexican IDC activities?
When AMLO was proclaimed winner of last July’s elections, he highlighted in his speech four of the eight constitutional principles that govern Mexico’s actions abroad, including IDC. An openly nationalist left party won for the first time in the history of Mexico; an anti-elite, for-the-people government
Put briefly, it seems that with AMLO, Mexico transits, from what Schumpeter would call a democratic elitist model – in the hands of a few – to one of participatory and republican democracy – where citizens are actively involved in political decisions. This has been marked by citizen consultations and debates that have been opened from the political leadership to be discussed by the people, for example the struggles with the judicial power
Now, the budget of income and expenses recently published, and the priority given to some items over others, gives an early picture of what the AMLO Government could be in many ways. Among the agencies that will receive the most resources is, for example, the Welfare Ministry, which, together with the pro-social and anti-neoliberal discourse of the current president and the rise of the minimum wage, speculates that Mexico is moving towards a greater Welfare State.
All this is important because it talks about AMLO’s perceptions and vision of the world, as he seems to be genuinely concerned about social inequality. So what if this is reflected at the foreign policy level?
For this we would need to understand the action of international dynamics from a systemic perspective, where there are at least three levels of analysis. On the one hand, the domestic preferences of the citizens – in this case, the majority that voted for AMLO -, which are reflected and represented by the decision makers – AMLO and his Government -, and that finally affect the country’s actions outward.
Meanwhile, the exterior affects the domestic level, for example, with globalization, which now for a few years has generated an important rejection in the populations of different parts of the world, resulting in a nationalist discourse that has already modified the perception of citizens and has influenced their political preferences, for example in the United States.
If one thinks that the ideas and values of a population have a significant impact on foreign policy, and if those ideas and values are based on addressing social inequality and poverty through a Welfare State, one can think that as a global player, Mexico will be more concerned with reducing global inequality and poverty, which is why the IDC could be the most benefited area in Mexican foreign policy.
Lumsdaine thought that a country’s level of foreign aid is a function of the level at which that country treats poverty at the domestic level. His research showed that those countries with the highest social spending – generally governed by the Social-Democrats – were also those with the highest levels of ODA.
In turn, Noël and Thérien saw a direct relationship between welfare state policies and the IDC, because the values and principles that accompany this kind of state function as causal mechanisms that influence politics through public opinion.
At this point, Mexico has been successful in negotiating with the Trump administration a «Marshall Plan» for Central America and Southern Mexico, whose main objective is to promote progress and development to mitigate the effects of migration in the region. It should be emphasized that although the latter is a pragmatic motivation, it does not necessarily mean a distancing from these values of social justice that I mentioned previously, since the IDC can serve, in principle, for pragmatic purposes, like any foreign policy action.
So AMLO achieved in the first days of his Government an important victory at the foreign policy level, and as it is explained, the priority item was the IDC. It is encouraging then to think that this six-year term will finally attend to the suggestions of several academics and diplomats to give greater emphasis to the IDC and the Mexican Agency. Of course, all this is conditioned to the will of the president who, at the same time, defends a discourse of austerity that can have a significant impact on the external plane, although up to now the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has come out well delivered from the coup.
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