Human Rights and US Foreign Policy: Rhetorics and Interests

The aim of this paper is to examine the role of human rights in the making of United States foreign policy. While the concept of human rights has had a prominent place in US foreign policy especially since the early 1970s, this paper argues that Washington’s concern for human rights is mainly rhetorical and very much interwoven with perceived US national interests at any given time. This study takes examples from human rights policy of various US administrations, yet focuses on the Carter and Reagan presidencies in order to highlight the dynamics of human rights in US foreign policy both in theory and practice. The objective is to understand various executive approaches and limitations to and potentials for the promotion of human rights in American foreign policy. The reason for selecting these two administrations is that Jimmy Carter was the first US president to institutionalize human rights in US foreign policy formulation and implementation, while the Reagan Administration sought to roll it back. The article also demonstrates how human rights discourse can have its own impact on political developments abroad regardless of the intentions of foreign policymakers in Washington.