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Full-Text Articles in International Relations
The Us On The Palestinian Statehood Bid: Weighing The Costs, Thomas Pegram
The Us On The Palestinian Statehood Bid: Weighing The Costs, Thomas Pegram
Human Rights & Human Welfare
Reflecting on the controversy surrounding the Palestinian bid for statehood, Richard Falk neatly subverts the opening words of the UN Charter, “we the people,” as having always surrendered to “we the governments,” and, in the modern era of American empire, “we the hegemon.”
This may well be true. The UN Security Council (UNSC), in particular, is viewed in Washington as a vehicle for hegemonic ambitions—to be indulged when it serves its purpose and vetoed and sidelined when it does not. Unfolding events at the UNSC, reportedly due to vote on the Palestinian resolution on November 11 but now postponed perhaps …
Donald W. Jackson On Prisoners Of America’S Wars: From The Early Republic To Guantanamo. By Stephanie Carvin. New York: Columbia University Press, 2010. 336pp., Donald W. Jackson
Donald W. Jackson On Prisoners Of America’S Wars: From The Early Republic To Guantanamo. By Stephanie Carvin. New York: Columbia University Press, 2010. 336pp., Donald W. Jackson
Human Rights & Human Welfare
A review of:
Prisoners of America’s Wars: From the Early Republic to Guantanamo. By Stephanie Carvin. New York: Columbia University Press, 2010. 336pp.
Paul Timmermans On Invisible War: The United States And The Iraq Sanctions. By Joy Gordon. Cambridge, Ma: Harvard University Press, 2010. 359 Pp., Paul Timmermans
Paul Timmermans On Invisible War: The United States And The Iraq Sanctions. By Joy Gordon. Cambridge, Ma: Harvard University Press, 2010. 359 Pp., Paul Timmermans
Human Rights & Human Welfare
A review of:
Invisible War: The United States and the Iraq Sanctions. By Joy Gordon. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2010. 359 pp.
May Roundtable: The Downfall Of Human Rights? Introduction
May Roundtable: The Downfall Of Human Rights? Introduction
Human Rights & Human Welfare
An annotation of:
“The Downfall of Human Rights” by Joshua Kurlantzick. Newsweek. February 19, 2010.
A Positive View Of The Trajectory Of The Human Rights Movement, David Akerson
A Positive View Of The Trajectory Of The Human Rights Movement, David Akerson
Human Rights & Human Welfare
In 1988, during the waning days of apartheid in South Africa, I was a young American lawyer working for South African Lawyers for Human Rights in Pretoria. On one occasion, I accompanied some of my African colleagues to a conference, the purpose of which was to begin visualizing post-apartheid South Africa. While the apartheid regime was still in power, it was clearly in hasty retreat, and it was equally clear that its days were numbered. The African majority would soon be taking over the reigns of power, and they were excited to begin visualizing what freedom and human rights might …
Premature Judgment, Todd Landman
Premature Judgment, Todd Landman
Human Rights & Human Welfare
Just as Mark Twain said in 1897, “The report of my death was an exaggeration,” many commentators have prematurely reported the death of human rights. For example, in 1999, in The Theory and Reality of the Protection of International Human Rights , J. Shand Watson sees human rights as a “mere fiction” in light of a century of state-sponsored killing. One year later, Costas Douzinas, through an appeal to history, philosophy, and psychoanalysis proclaimed the “end of human rights.” It is thus no surprise that the article by Joshua Kurlantzick is yet another attempt to warn us that human rights …
A Human Rights-Oriented Approach To Military Operations, Federico Sperotto
A Human Rights-Oriented Approach To Military Operations, Federico Sperotto
Human Rights & Human Welfare
Counterinsurgency is the dominant aspect of US operations in Afghanistan, and since ISAF—the NATO-led security and assistance force—has assumed growing security responsibility throughout the country, it is also a mission for the Europeans.1 The frame in which military operations are conducted is irregular warfare, a form of conflict which differs from conventional operations in two main aspects. First, it is warfare among and within the people. Second, it is warfare in which insurgents avoid a direct military confrontation, using instead unconventional methods and terrorist tactics.
© Federico Sperotto. All rights reserved.
This paper may be freely circulated in electronic or …
American Capitalism - Disasterous Consequences?, Richard Falk
American Capitalism - Disasterous Consequences?, Richard Falk
Human Rights & Human Welfare
Naomi Klein’s depiction of late-capitalism as feeding off a disaster-prone planet and state-system is provocative and illuminating, even if it seems to be itself a form of “shock and awe” journalism. The great cultural critic of the 1960s, Norman O. Brown, memorably said of psychoanalysis, “[o]nly the exaggerations are valuable,” and so it might be with this critique of the dark sides of recent tendencies in world economic activity. It is notable that the book version of Klein’s article bears the title The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism, which itself can be read as a sly admission that …
Wars Against Civilians Are Unjust Wars, Richard A. Falk
Wars Against Civilians Are Unjust Wars, Richard A. Falk
Human Rights & Human Welfare
For those of us old enough to recall the anti-war testimony of Vietnam vets during the early 1970s, reading the chilling report by Hedges and Al-Arian on the attitudes of Iraq war vets is shocking, and yet not surprising. It is shocking because of the eyewitness confirmation of cruelty and lethal brutality on a regular basis in the interactions between the coalition army of occupation and Iraqi civilian society. Sadly, it is not shocking because of the nature of the violent resistance to occupation being encountered by American forces in Iraq, giving rise to a Vietnam-style mentality of counterinsurgency in …
Facing Up To The Truth, Susan E. Waltz
Facing Up To The Truth, Susan E. Waltz
Human Rights & Human Welfare
American GIs who liberated Dachau from the Nazis in April 1945 exist in our collective memory as iconic representations of the American soldier-hero: competent and capable, disciplined, principled and fundamentally good. From their collective example, we expect American soldiers to reveal, report, and excoriate war crimes. This makes it difficult to acknowledge that Americans may also commit war crimes—and on a regular basis.
September Roundtable: Introduction
September Roundtable: Introduction
Human Rights & Human Welfare
An annotation of:
“The Other War: Iraq Vets Bear Witness” by Chris Hedges and Laila Al-Arian. The Nation, July 30, 2007.
Occupational Hazard, Michael Goodhart
Occupational Hazard, Michael Goodhart
Human Rights & Human Welfare
“The Other War” describes how the patrols, supply convoys, checkpoints, raids, and arrests, which make up the daily routines of U.S. soldiers in Iraq, sometimes involve degrading and abusive treatment of Iraqi civilians. Through interviews with some of those soldiers, the article portrays the everyday tragedy of the Iraq war and demonstrates how the very policies used to “secure” the country are creating greater insecurity and sparking Iraqi resentment of the occupation. The authors’ main point is that such abuses are inevitable under what they call “misguided and brutal colonial wars and occupations” like Iraq, “the French occupation of Algeria… …
Bad Apples Or Bad Policies?, Daniel J. Whelan
Bad Apples Or Bad Policies?, Daniel J. Whelan
Human Rights & Human Welfare
In a scene from the Woody Allen film Hannah and Her Sisters, the haughty and cantankerous character Frederick (Max von Sydow) is telling his girlfriend (Barbara Hershey) how he spent the evening flipping through channels on television. Ever the arrogant social critic, Frederick remarks,
You missed a very dull TV show on Auschwitz. More gruesome film clips. And more puzzled intellectuals declaring their mystification over the systematic murder of millions. The reason they can never answer the question: “How could it possibly happen?” is that it’s the wrong question. Given what people are, the question is: “Why doesn't it happen …
Geopolitics Or Human Rights?, Judith Blau
Geopolitics Or Human Rights?, Judith Blau
Human Rights & Human Welfare
George Soros’ article, “On Israel, America and AIPAC” serves as a sobering reminder that the human rights revolution is constantly being scuttled by geopolitics that not only sideline human rights, but more devastatingly undermine their premises. I happen to agree with him that the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) is a major obstacle to the U.S. normalizing relations with any country in the Middle East, including and especially Israel. AIPAC is something of a misnomer because it is a coalition, not a committee, and some of its key members include neo-cons, as Soros mentions, as well as Christian evangelicals. …
Engagement As A Way Toward Peace, Mahmood Monshipouri
Engagement As A Way Toward Peace, Mahmood Monshipouri
Human Rights & Human Welfare
The Bush administration’s active support for the Israeli government is counterproductive in its refusal to recognize a Palestinian unity government which includes Hamas. A great majority of American Jews have called for Israel to withdraw from the territories occupied in 1967 and support the creation of a Palestinian state. A hard-line minority of politicians in the United States, along with their affiliated media networks and think-tanks, have continued to dominate the main Jewish lobbying group, the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).
June Roundtable: Introduction
Human Rights & Human Welfare
An annotation of:
“On Israel, America and AIPAC” by George Soros. New York Review of Books. April 12, 2007.
Should Supporters Of Israel Embrace An "Open Society"?, Harry Kreisler
Should Supporters Of Israel Embrace An "Open Society"?, Harry Kreisler
Human Rights & Human Welfare
Organizations, such as lobbies, must adapt to changes in their environment or they risk mission failure and possible extinction. Adaptation requires new ideas, new constituencies, and rigorous self-analysis. A vigorous internal debate raises the possibility of corrections in course as an organization navigates through its changing environment.
Aipac's Good Intentions Undermine Israel's Interests, Ali Wyne
Aipac's Good Intentions Undermine Israel's Interests, Ali Wyne
Human Rights & Human Welfare
While the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) is nominally pro-Israel, its advice undermines Israel’s interests. It does not encourage Israel to make concessions, but rather recommends that Israel ignore the reformists within and outside of it. The folly of such counsel becomes apparent when one recognizes that Israel’s current strategy cannot be sustained.
May Roundtable: Introduction
Human Rights & Human Welfare
An annotation of:
“The Politics of Naming: Genocide, Civil War, Insurgency” by Mahmood Mamdani. London Review of Books. March 8, 2007.
Politics Of Naming And Politics Of Responsibility, Rhoda Howard-Hassmann
Politics Of Naming And Politics Of Responsibility, Rhoda Howard-Hassmann
Human Rights & Human Welfare
Mahmood Mamdani is right to complain that the American—and international—public is unaware of the political complexity of the Darfur conflict. He is also right to point out that selective or inconsistent uses of the terms “genocide,” “civil war,” and “insurgency” can mask covert, or even overt, political agendas. His comparison of Darfur to Iraq is telling. And he is right to point out that even with the best of humanitarian intentions, the presentation of a simplified version of Darfur, in which “Arabs” persecute “Africans,” can play into the “war on terror,” insofar as, in the minds of at least some …
The Return Of Moral Equivalence, J. Peter Pham
The Return Of Moral Equivalence, J. Peter Pham
Human Rights & Human Welfare
During the latter stages of the Cold War, one school of ethical analysis, ultimately labeled as “moral equivalence” by the late Jeane Kirkpatrick, measured Western liberal democracies against utopian standards in a radical critique which redefined the political discourse, erasing distinctions between the Soviet Union and its satellites on the one hand and the United States and its allies on the other.
Missing The Point, Colin Thomas-Jensen
Missing The Point, Colin Thomas-Jensen
Human Rights & Human Welfare
“What would happen if we thought of Darfur as we do of Iraq, as a place with a history and politics—a messy politics of insurgency and counterinsurgency?” (§4). This is the most telling question posed by Professor Mahmood Mamdani in “The Politics of Naming: Genocide, Civil War, Insurgency.” The implication is that the growing public demand for strong international action—military or otherwise—to halt the atrocities in Darfur is somehow unwarranted because people have failed to understand that the systematic crimes against humanity committed against civilians in Darfur (and indeed Iraq) are an inevitability of “the messy politics of insurgency and …
The Moral Vocabulary Of Violence, David L. G. Rice
The Moral Vocabulary Of Violence, David L. G. Rice
Human Rights & Human Welfare
What is at stake in labeling a particular incidence of large-scale violence “genocide”? Mahmood Mamdani rightly argues that “genocide” is an insufficient description of the conflict in Darfur. I would suggest that the problematic nature of that terminology goes back to its inception after World War II. Activists have inherited the concept of “genocide” from a particular historical moment. Now, “ genocide” carries unique moral weight in the discourse of international politics. When violence against civilians has been widely accepted as a necessary outcome of the preservation of peace, activists find it necessary to imagine a worse evil than the …
Human Rights And The War On Terror: Complete 2005 - 2007 Topical Research Digest, Jack Donnelly, Simon Amajuru, Susannah Compton, Robin Davey, Syd Dillard, Amanda Donahoe, Charles Hess, Sydney Fisher, Kelley Laird, Victoria Lowdon, Chris Maggard, Alexandra Nichols, Travis Ning, Toni Panetta, Greg Sanders, James Smithwick, Angela Woolliams, Chris Saeger, Sarah Bania-Dobyns, Eric Dibbern, David Gillespie, Latife Bulur, Katie Friesen, Arika Long, Arianna Nowakowski, Joel R. Pruce
Human Rights And The War On Terror: Complete 2005 - 2007 Topical Research Digest, Jack Donnelly, Simon Amajuru, Susannah Compton, Robin Davey, Syd Dillard, Amanda Donahoe, Charles Hess, Sydney Fisher, Kelley Laird, Victoria Lowdon, Chris Maggard, Alexandra Nichols, Travis Ning, Toni Panetta, Greg Sanders, James Smithwick, Angela Woolliams, Chris Saeger, Sarah Bania-Dobyns, Eric Dibbern, David Gillespie, Latife Bulur, Katie Friesen, Arika Long, Arianna Nowakowski, Joel R. Pruce
Human Rights & Human Welfare
“9/11 changed everything.” Not really. In fact, there has been far more continuity than change over the past six years in both international and domestic politics. Nonetheless, human rights often have been harmed—although not by terrorism but by “the war on terror.”
Human Rights And The War On Terror: Introduction, Jack Donnelly
Human Rights And The War On Terror: Introduction, Jack Donnelly
Human Rights & Human Welfare
War rarely is good for human rights. The decision of the United States to launch a “global war on terror” in response to the suicide airplane bombings in New York and Washington has had predictably negative human rights consequences. In combating a tiny network of violent political extremists, human rights have in various ways, both intentional and unintentional, been restricted, infringed, violated, ignored, and trampled in many countries, sometimes severely.