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This chapter charts how the initial sentiment of solidarity for the Ukrainian families quickly started to subside, leaving in its place a cancerous antipathy which was to form the foundations for more instability for the Ukrainian families. Cultural differences become magnified in the shared spaces, which are exacerbated by the meritocratic expectation for the Ukrainians to ‘get work’ and ‘be independent’. This is all further aggravated by the increasing costs of living, which the Spanish host families attribute to the Ukrainians and their presence – though wider global disruptions to markets and supply chains are more to blame. Two Spanish hosts, in particular, start to become more vocal about the ‘perceived’ lack of appreciation from the Ukrainians in the face of these new challenges and they start to ditch their own support for the Ukrainian cause. ‘Trending solidarity’ is a concept I use to describe this emotive attachment to help coupled with the brittle commitment to see it through.
In this chapter, the Ukrainians’ arrival and early introduction to Spain and Spanish cultural life is documented. On their arrival, my small hometown was simultaneously swelling with other Ukrainian guests so segments of their life in the Ukraine and their journey are also described here, giving particular attention to the invasion and their immediate departure from their country. There is a stoic feeling among the Ukrainians in this period which relates to their inherent belief that they will prevail against the Russians and it is this resistance which feeds their rejection of the ‘refugee’ label, particularly when it was mentioned in reference to being ‘poor’ or ‘needy’. This chapter looks at these feelings as the Ukrainians start to engage with the relevant systems to register themselves for temporary ID, access to healthcare and find out about the lack of state handouts.
As the dystopian honeymoon period started to diminish, Oksana and her family, as well as the growing number of Ukrainians in Brunete, assumed the mountainous administrative tasks that now loomed on the horizon. Relief that safety had been achieved was replaced by a panging guilt and a reluctant necessity to obtain things which symbolically confirmed they now resided in another country. It was at this point that the cultural integration began but also simultaneously started to end at the same time. In this chapter, I consider how early steps were taken towards learning the language, finding work and adapting to cultural life in Spain. Work, in particular, is at best limited and generally bound to exploitative conditions. Some get cash-in-hand jobs cleaning houses while a pool of eight are contracted out, working long hours for low pay maintaining public spaces for a private company subcontracted by the local council. This compromises their childcare and puts pressure on a few people like myself to step in to further support the families. Here we also therefore account for some of the other Ukrainians and their experiences in this true-to-life storybook.
A calm desire of the good, benevolence belongs to constantia and not to pertubatio, according to the typology of passions elaborated by Cicero. The first one is a peaceful and natural tendency in order to understand our human condition. The second one corresponds to a reactive, brief, and lively disorder without control of reason. Globalization, as a product of modernity, flirts much more with the disruptive side of uncontrolled passions than with the channelling side of affections animated by constancy, patience, and consequence. At least until now. The question here is not of opposing globalization head on, but of seeing how, when it appears in the light of an untimely and unrestrained movement, it produces deleterious effects. Such a perspective does not erase the presence and the expression of a sensitivity to calm that benevolence feeds on as a moral disposition, and that diplomats incorporate in their ways of considering the relationship with otherness. On the one hand, this sensitivity offers a counterpoint to the exacerbated drifts of globalization. On the other hand, it directs the gaze towards a more balanced and probably more enlightened globalization. Benevolence is based here on another feeling in terms of rhythm: slowing down. It also implies another perception in terms of acoustics: to resonate.
Realist conceptions of the milieu ignore the fundamental idea that the global environment is similar to a living organism necessary for the existence of its inhabitants. The anchoring in the global environment presents here a double aspect as an integration of human beings in the natural environment and in society. This sensitivity to the good as an expression of inclusion finds in diplomatic activity a manifest field of development since it is essential to maintain the link with the other. This sensitivity is embedded in norms. They are not only natural law or subtle obligations considered imperfect because they are not a source of sanctions. They can be transformed into rules of positive law, thus revealing their character as pillars within international relations.
Ordinary individuals in international relations not only embody violence, suffering, and indifference; they also seem totally subordinated to the impotence produced by the burden of responsibility for the fate of all vulnerable human beings across the world. These ordinary individuals also engage in benevolent actions. They adopt practices aimed at the good of others and even of nature, but in proximity. It is indeed at this local scale that benevolence finds its primary and probably most intense dynamic. As Hutcheson pointed out, benevolence, like gravitation, is stronger the closer bodies get ‘and come to touch’. But this scale is by no means disconnected from the rest of international relations, since it remains linked to issues that cross borders, such as environmental protection, the preservation of solidarity links, or, of course, migrations. Such behaviours echo the ‘supererogatory morality’ evoked by Rawls in his Theory of Justice. Fuelled by ‘an acute sensitivity to the feelings and desires of others’, it goes beyond the requirements of justice and ‘is not suitable for ordinary beings’. However, certain moral conducts testify to a movement beyond the ordinary. They tend towards the centre of the benevolence continuum and activate its positive component (to help and improve the conditions of the vulnerable as well as of fellow human beings).
Some states are cultivating an exit strategy, ostensibly turning their backs on the ‘multilateral way of life’, as with Brexit or the populist choices in the Trump era. A crisis of functionality such as a weakening of the ‘functional triangle’ that links legitimacy (acting in the name of the interests of all), representativeness (composing a fair whole), and effectiveness (acting to produce the desired effects) of intergovernmental organizations. The stalled reform of the United Nations, particularly that of the Security Council, and the exhaustion of peace operations are striking illustrations of this. A crisis of normativity. This is due to the salient divisions between Western countries and emerging countries, and, more broadly, among countries of the South, as to the conceptions of human rights and the values that make it possible to achieve universality. How can we put an end to this awkwardness in multilateralism? By reviving solidarism. Multilateralism would find its true matrix in the awareness of the chains that link us all, individuals and nations, past, present, and future generations. But nothing can be done without education. Benevolence as a project as extensive as possible and within the limits of our finitude supposes awareness. It is already at work. We just have to take care of and enrich it.
In this first English-language edition of a sole-authored book from Frédéric Ramel, benevolence is defined as a moral principle which promotes temperance and attention to vulnerability. Ramel unpacks this concept, analyses its received meanings in different contexts and spells out its practical and ethical implications in detail.
In preparing this work for an English-speaking readership, the author undertook extensive revisions and included two additional chapters. It also includes a foreword from Chris Brown, Emeritus Professor of International Relations at the London School of Economics and Political Science. The French edition was published as La Bienveillance Dans Les Relations Internationales.
Traditionally, benevolence appears in international relations with the features of two state figures: the ‘benevolent neutral’ state that places itself outside of an armed conflict, and the ‘benevolent hegemonic’ state whose leadership makes it possible to institute an order that is beneficial to all members of the interstate society. This definition provides a restrictive reading of benevolence by focusing on the interest of a third or powerful state. Indeed, to think of benevolence as international practice, that is, material goodness, is to identify state actions guided by a moral sense beyond neutrality and leadership. It is essentially through the prism of moderation in diplomatic and strategic relations between states that it can be observed. It is deployed through no-harm or negative benevolence as well as temperance or positive benevolence. Both have a complementary virtue, that of vigilance in order to avoid the worst or to reasonably promote the good. This movement from negative benevolence to positive benevolence reveals a sequential approach. Apart from the state malice (examined in a short prelude), the experience of the former gradually allows us to envisage the latter, which is what historical observation as well as certain philosophical positions suggest.
Analysing benevolence and being inspired by it these days demands lucidity. It does reconnect with the Enlightenment but as less dazzling, less presumptuous. The international context requires this since everything that comes from the West, and in particular the thinking that is seminal to it, is open to severe criticism. The goal of this conclusion is to inscribe benevolence in the Enlightenment with all the necessary clairvoyance and modesty.
