Just Politics: Human Rights and the Foreign Policy of Great Powers

The conventional wisdom in international relations is that human rights matter little, if at all, in the foreign policy of great powers, especially when that policy involves strategic endeavors like the war on terror. U.S. behavior since 9/11 seems to reflect this belief. In addition to its own abuses at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay, Washington appears to be overtly endorsing the inhumanity of partner regimes in countries ranging from Kazakhstan and Pakistan to Saudi Arabia and Egypt. These relationships are underwrit-ten by a series of military and economic assistance commitments by which the United States has provided billions of dollars in aid. Under the strategic guise of fighting terror, the leading liberal great power in the international system appears to be acting anything but liberal.