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Hum Rights Rev (2009) 10:431452
DOI 10.1007/s12142-009-0127-1
Julie Harrelson-Stephens & Rhonda L. Callaway
Published online: 20 March 2009# Springer Science + Business Media B.V. 2009
Abstract We argue that the post-9/11 environment has amounted to a substantive change in the longstanding United States relationship with the international human rights regime. We identify three distinct phases of that relationship, noting that in the most recent phase, since 9/11, the United States has moved from passive support of the international human rights regime to a direct attack of that regime. Realist and liberal regime theories suggest that the human rights regime is relatively weak, and is unlikely to withstand such an attack. We find that the regime has not only continued to persist, but has flourished even as US support has faltered. The human rights regime is surprisingly strong. We argue it is the ideological nature of the regime that explains its resilience, which suggests that constructivist theory is necessary to fully understand the human rights regime.
Keywords Human rights regime . Regime theory. Torture . Hegemon . September 11
Over the last 50 years, the international community has witnessed the development of a human rights regime emerging out of a combination of international law, international organizations, and state behavior. Rejecting absolute state sovereignty as a defense when it comes to human rights violations in the wake of the Holocaust and atrocities of World War II, the United States embarked on promoting both the norm of human rights as well as organizations and laws supporting those rights in the form of the United Nations (UN), the UN Charter, and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). What happens to an international regime, however, when the hegemon overtly attacks one or more of its norms? Is strong international support
J. Harrelson-Stephens (*)
Department of Political Science, Stephen F. Austin State University, Box 13045, SFA Station, LAN Room 108, Nacogdoches, TX 75962, USAe-mail: [email protected]
R. L. Callaway
Department of Political Science, College of Humanities and Social Sciences, Sam Houston State University, Box 2149, Huntsville, TX 77340-2149, USA e-mail: [email protected]
The Empire Strikes Back: The US Assault on the International Human Rights Regime
432 J. Harrelson-Stephens, R.L. Callaway
absent the hegemon sufficient for regime survival? The events of September 11th...