What is it?
Ethical Foreign Policies: Means active (policy) intervention whenever and immediately that there is a "moral imperative". It was first brought up by the UK foreign secretary, Robin Cook, in 1997. Cook redefined foreign policy with a dimension of Ethics. He collaborated the idea of ethics with the nations policies arguing that it would improve neighbouring country relations and ultimately improving society within the UK.
Has it been used? (Practiced? Implied?)
This whole concept of 'Ethical' foreign policies is still new and it would take decades for the this concept to be implied into all the countries policies. Furthermore, several government officials argue that the ethical foreign policy is a 'hopelessly naive notion' (debatewise.org). They believe that 'governments are constrained by practical concerns'. For example if the government stops the production of arms (weapons in general) because its 'ethically' wrong to even have or produce one. The citizens would end up losing their jobs and nobody will have or be able to sell arms. It's a lose lose situation, no one gains from this except for the arms exporters. On the other hand, many would agree that it's the 'right' way to go. This would create a positive output on many countries influencing them to do the same. But most importantly, it would promote businesses to take the 'right' actions and there would be a significant decrease in crime, illegal trade, and generally the illegal processes of profitable procedures. Unfortunately this is economically unfavourable, as this concept decreases bad business practices, it would also decrease the whole economy because production will significantly inefficient and slow. So to sum it all up, the whole idea of 'Ethical' foreign policies undoubtedly sounds like the right thing to do but it also most definitely has its disadvantages that would require significant amounts of recovery.
2 Examples of Countries implying (or trying to imply) Ethical Foreign Policies.
The UK has the longest history of Ethical Foreign Policies. Robin Cook, the foreign secretary of the UK, has first introduced the idea itself in 1997. He argued that it would both change the reputation of the UK positively and that it would socially benefit the business, government and economic fields. He gave an official Mission Statement on Ethical Foreign Policies that sets clear objectives for the UK. Cook argued that implying Ethical Foreign Policies will only give positive outputs for the UK. For example he strongly believed that it would strengthen the relation of the neighbouring European countries (EU), that it would influence the rest of the world (as a greater example), that it would promote 'clean' business and that it would decrease crime rates in the UK. Unfortunately this was not the case. as a whole decade passed nothing has significantly changed in the UK. It has officially been implied into the Parliament (as in rule book) and it has most certainly made the UK look a little better but it hasn't really been practised.
Another country has tried to practice Ethical Foreign Policies through the help of the UK. Today, Indonesia has been trying to imply Ethical Foreign Policies especially focusing on Labor Polices. With the help of the UK Indonesia has successfully eradicated any Labor misguided Policies and they replaced it with 'Ethical' polices in which gives the Indonesian citizens fundamental labor rights. In return they continued major trade with the UK.
http://www.theguardian.com/ethical
http://www.theguardian.com/world/1997/may/12/indonesia.ethicalforeignpolicy
