ABSTRACT
On 12 May 1997, an ethical foreign policy suddenly appeared possible. British Foreign Secretary, Robin Cook, announced that British foreign policy was to have an ‘ethical dimension’ under his leadership.1 The new Labour government had promised many things since being elected with an enormous parliamentary majority just 11 days earlier, but few were as energising or unexpected as Cook’s announcement. This was what prompted my early interest in the possibility of ethical foreign policy. Was that all it took? Did one need to only declare that an ‘ethical dimension’ to foreign policy was now possible? If so, why did it seem that no one, including the previous Conservative government, had done it before?
