Human Rights and US Foreign Relations

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah B. Snyder
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
National Security ◽  
Foreign Relations ◽  
The United States ◽  
Economic Interests ◽  
Considerable Debate ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Over Time

In its formulation of foreign policy, the United States takes account of many priorities and factors, including national security concerns, economic interests, and alliance relationships. An additional factor with significance that has risen and fallen over time is human rights, or more specifically violations of human rights. The extent to which the United States should consider such abuses or seek to moderate them has been and continues to be the subject of considerable debate.

Customary International Law and U.S. Judicial Power

2020 ◽  
pp. 251-264
Author(s):  
Thomas H. Lee
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
International Law ◽  
Foreign Relations ◽  
The United States ◽  
Federal Courts ◽  
Judicial Power ◽  
Customary International Law ◽  
The Third

This chapter describes specific points of divergence between the Third and Fourth Restatements of the Foreign Relations Law of the United States regarding how U.S. courts should engage with customary international law. The Third Restatement, adopted in 1987, envisioned U.S. courts fluent in and engaged with international law, deploying a U.S. foreign relations jurisprudence in dialogue with international law and lawyers. Customary international law was a central feature of this vision because it was the prime pathway for human rights litigation in federal courts when U.S. treaty-based human-rights initiatives had stalled. Appearing thirty years later, the Fourth Restatement exhibits a fundamentally different orientation toward customary international law. Customary international law is no longer embraced as it was in the Third Restatement as an opportunity to play offense, to advance the international law of human rights. That vision inspired a reaction among some U.S. legal scholars who questioned the U.S. federal law status of customary international law and the legitimacy of U.S. judges advancing the customary international law of human rights. The Fourth Restatement seeks a middle ground by defending against this revision of customary international law’s status role in the United States, concerned that the revisionist view might encourage and provide cover for U.S. courts to dismiss cases and claims with foreign policy ramifications that they should be adjudicating. The approaches of the two Restatements, taken together, have contributed to the disengagement of U.S. judges from customary international law altogether, to the detriment of U.S. conduct of foreign policy and contrary to the original constitutional specification of the judicial power of the United States as reflected in Article III, the Judiciary Act of 1789 that established the federal courts, and early historical practice.

Phantom Peace

2020 ◽  
pp. 55-80
Author(s):  
Kenneth Kolander
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Middle East ◽  
National Security ◽  
Foreign Relations ◽  
Democratic Party ◽  
Strategic Alliance ◽  
Domestic Politics ◽  
The United States ◽  
To Come

The themes of national security and domestic politics intersect in the second chapter. Based on the papers of Henry “Scoop” Jackson and J. William Fulbright, the chapter uses the conflict between the two Democratic senators to show how the growing Soviet presence in the Middle East, combined with the deteriorating situation in Southeast Asia in the late 1960s and early 1970s, brought about a major upheaval within the Democratic Party as well as a rise in conservative support for Israel from the halls of Congress. Jackson, who ran for president in 1972 and 1976, and Fulbright, the longest-tenured chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, staked out very different positions for the proper relationship between the United States and Israel. A discussion about the Jackson-Fulbright conflict encourages broader thinking about congressional participation in U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East and also exposes significant political fault lines that would complicate the making of U.S. policy toward Israel for years to come. The United States and Israel developed a strategic alliance during this period, in addition to the special relationship, which involved an enormous increase in weapons sales from the United States to Israel.

scholarly journals Russian diplomacy and the liberal Russian press on the events of the Ten-Year War of Independence (1868-1878)

2020 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 54-85
Author(s):  
Ivkina Liudmila ◽  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
The United States ◽  
National Liberation ◽  
Economic Interests ◽  
Objective Information ◽  
War Of Independence ◽  
Liberation Movement ◽  
Liberation Struggle

The article examines Russia's position on the War of Independence in Cuba (1868-1878), which marked the beginning of a long process of national liberation. The tone of the reports of Russian diplomats from Spain and the United States was determined by the policy of neutrality and non-interference typical of Russia's foreign policy towards Spain after Аlexander II's accession to the Russian throne in 1855. Events of the liberation struggle of the Cuban people, methods and forms of liberation movement, the policy of the United States and Spain in relation to the war of independence in Cuba received coverage in the liberal Russian press, such publications as "World Illustration", "The Case", "The Herald of Europe". Articles and notes contained objective information about the events taking place in Cuba, expressed feelings of solidarity and support for the Cuban people, condemned the policy of Spain, which sought by any means to suppress the revolutionary process, criticized the Cuban policy of the United States, persecuted their vested economic interests and not interested in the independence of Cu-ba.

scholarly journals Conflict in the Middle East: The US and the Turkish-Kurdish Conflict

2018 ◽  
Vol 25 ◽  
pp. 11-21
Author(s):  
Matthew Dotzler
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
National Security ◽  
Boiling Point ◽  
The United States ◽  
Us Foreign Policy ◽  
Northern Iraq ◽  
The Us ◽  
History Of ◽  
Kurdish Conflict

The conflict between Turkey and the Kurds is once again reaching a boiling point. Following the defeat of ISIL in northern Iraq and Syria, Turkey is now concerned that the returning Kurdish militias pose a threat to its national security. The United States, as an ally to both parties, finds itself in a unique position to push for diplomatic solutions and to mediate the conflict before it grows out of control once again. This paper will examine the history of the Turkish-Kurdish conflict, the actors involved, and how US foreign policy can be used to try and deter yet another war in the region.

Regulatory Decision-Making and Economic Analysis

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar ◽  
Jerry L. Mashaw
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
United States ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
Economic Analysis ◽  
National Security ◽  
Technology Policy ◽  
The United States ◽  
Regulatory Activity ◽  
Regulatory Decision ◽  
Over Time

The economic analysis of regulation is a broad topic, with implications for environmental protection, communications and technology policy, public health, immigration, national security, and other areas affecting risk and welfare in society. This chapter covers only a portion of the relevant ground, focusing on the following essential topics: First, what do we mean by “economic analysis” and what do we mean by “regulation”? Second, why has this topic become an important one, not only the United States, but in most advanced democracies? Third, why is economic analysis and regulation a contested, even contentious, aspect of modern regulatory activity? Finally, and most important, how is economic analysis structured into regulatory decision-making, and how might existing arrangements evolve over time?

Constructive Engagement: Reactionary Pragmatism at its Best

1982 ◽  
Vol 12 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 11-18
Author(s):  
Deborah Toler
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
South Africa ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Southern Africa ◽  
The United States ◽  
Willingness To Accept ◽  
Economic Assistance ◽  
Security Issues ◽  
Constructive Engagement

No one is happy with the Reagan Administration’s southern Africa foreign policy strategy known as constructive engagement. Liberals object to the tilt towards South Africa, to the linkage of Cuban troop withdrawal from Angola to the Namibian negotiations; to the resulting moribund state of those negotiations; and to the deemphasis of human rights and development issues in favor of increased emphasis on military and security issues. Conservatives object to economic assistance packages for African socialist and self-styled states; to the declining U.S. support of Jonas Savimbi’s ostensibly pro-Western UNITA forces in Angola; to Administration efforts to improve relations between the United States and the Marxist states of Angola and Mozambique; and to the Administration’s apparent willingness to accept a SWAPO (i.e., communist guerrilla) outcome in Namibia.

The French Factor in U.S. Foreign Policy during the Nixon-Pompidou Period

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marc Trachtenberg
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
National Security ◽  
The United States ◽  
Nixon Administration ◽  
Nuclear Area ◽  
Henry Kissinger ◽  
Sharp Turn ◽  
Close Relationship ◽  
The 1960S

This chapter discusses relations between France and the United States under the Nixon administration. When Nixon took office as president in early 1969, he and his national security advisor Henry Kissinger wanted to put America's relationship with France on an entirely new footing. Relations between the two countries in the 1960s, and especially from early 1963 on, had been far from ideal. Nixon and Kissinger tried to develop a close relationship with the Pompidou government and in the early Nixon–Pompidou period the two governments were on very good terms. Both governments were also interested in developing a certain relationship in the nuclear area. However, by 1973 relations between the two countries took a sharp turn for the worse. The chapter considers what went wrong and why the attempt to develop a close relationship failed.

How to write an ending?

Lovecidal ◽  
2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Trinh T. Minh-ha
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
National Security ◽  
The United States ◽  
Patriot Act ◽  
War In Iraq ◽  
United States Occupation

This chapter discusses the aftermath of bin Laden's death and the war in Iraq. In questioning the meaning of victory during wartime, the chapter examines how bin Laden's memory endures and the contentions surrounding his death and legacy. It also questions the sense of American patriotism in the aftermath of his death before turning to the larger questions of the Patriot Act and national security, in considering what it means to be a free citizen in a post-bin Laden world. Finally, the chapter turns toward U.S. foreign policy, particularly of the circumstances surrounding the United States' occupation of and departure from Iraq—which, while signaling the end of one war, appears to be the prelude to another.

The United States, the International Criminal Court, and Afghanistan: The Rupturing of Mutual Accommodation

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (6) ◽  
pp. 1068-1107
Author(s):  
Kevin S. Robb ◽  
Shan Patel
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
National Security ◽  
International Criminal Court ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
The United States ◽  
Criminal Court ◽  
Strategic Approach ◽  
Chief Prosecutor ◽  
The U.S

Abstract In September 2018, then U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton delivered a speech that ushered in a new, more aggressive era of U.S. foreign policy vis-à-vis the International Criminal Court (icc). Washington’s disapprobation over the icc’s interest in the alleged crimes of U.S. personnel in Afghanistan has been seen as the cause for this change. While this is certainly partly true, little attention has been paid to Fatou Bensouda’s prosecutorial behaviour as an explanatory factor. Using the framework from David Bosco’s Rough Justice, this article demonstrates that a distinct shift in prosecutorial behaviour occurred when Fatou Bensouda took over as Chief Prosecutor. In contrast to Luis Moreno Ocampo’s strategic approach, avoidant of U.S. interests, Bensouda’s apolitical approach directly challenged the U.S. This shift in prosecutorial behaviour ruptured the ‘mutual accommodation’ that previously characterised the icc-U.S. relationship and, in turn, produced the shift in U.S. policy that now marginalises the Court.

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