Human Rights and Comparative Foreign Policy

✍ Scribed by United Nations, David Forsythe

• Publisher: Un University
• Year: 2000
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 376
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

Human Rights and Comparative Foreign Policy is the first book in English to examine the place of human rights in the foreign policies of a wide range of states during contemporary times. The book is also unique in utilizing a common framework of analysis for all 10 of the country or regional studies covered. This framework treats foreign policy as the result of a two-level game in which both domestic and foreign factors have to be considered. Leading experts from around the world analyze both liberal democratic and other foreign policies on human rights. A general introduction and a systematic conclusion add to the coherence of the project. The authors note the increasing attention given to human rights issues in contemporary foreign policy. At the same time, they argue that most states, including liberal democratic states that identify with human rights, are reluctant most of the time to elevate human rights concerns to a level equal to that of traditional security and economic concerns. When states do seek to integrate human rights with these and other concerns, the result is usually great inconsistency in patterns of foreign policy. The book further argues that different states bring different emphases to their human rights diplomacy, because of such factors as national political culture and perceived national interests. In the last analysis states can be compared along two dimensions pertaining to human rights: extent to which they are oriented toward an international rather than national conception of rights; and extent to which they are oriented toward international rather than national action to protect human rights. UNU Series on Foundations of Peace

✦ Table of Contents

Preliminaries......Page 1
Contents......Page 6
List of tables and fgures......Page 8
Acknowledgements......Page 9
1 Introduction......Page 12
2 US foreign policy and human rights......Page 32
3 Trials and errors......Page 60
4 British foreign policy and human rights......Page 98
5 Japan's foreign policy towards human rights......Page 126
6 Russian foreign policy and human rights......Page 160
7 India's human rights diplomacy......Page 189
8 Iran and human rights......Page 217
9 Human rights and foreign policy in Central Europe......Page 235
10 Human rights and foreign policy in post-apartheid South Africa......Page 261
11 Latin American foreign policies and human rights......Page 287
12 An overview......Page 321
Postscript: The Kosovo crisi......Page 346
List of contributors......Page 353
Index......Page 354