Question

Do civil society and INGO's strengthen or undermine the role of the governments in international relations? why or why not?​

Answer 1

Answer:

Josi, this is a very interesting question, worth a research thesis.

I suggest that you could look at the role of the United Nations and its special agencies like UNESCO, the WHO, and so on.

I see INGOs as trying to carry out decent and humanitarian work, whereas governments try to exert “soft power” for more or less selfish reasons.

Then there is China’s “Belt and Road” initiatives.

Australia used to have a decent foreign aid program,, which it has let lapse to very low levels - and in any case “foreign aid” tended to employ Australians to do work using Australian goods and services.

The USA and Australia have just had a “gabfest” (August 2018 ) to come up with ways to try to counter the Belt and Road initiatives in the Pacific. The “rationale” is that the naughty Chinese will build all sorts of (valuable) infrastructure like industrial areas (belts) and ports and roads to lift foolish and ignorant Pacific Islanders out of poverty, but leave them with a large debt.

Why Australia does not simply join fully in the Belt and Road program and apply its STEM expertise for design and project management and some money, who knows?

Another thread would be the efforts of philanthropists like Bill Gates attacking specific problems like malaria and river blindness.