Moral high ground?
Image source: www.geopolitica.info
The Guardian has a headline today that reads: Human rights concerns threaten to sour US-China Summit. No doubt President Hu Jintao plans to bring up capital punishment in the US, Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib.
Hello,
The marriage between foreign policy and human rights by the US under President Jimmy Carter was a most significant event in international
relations. A world superpower was finally taking the lead in defence of such rights globally.
The marriage between the two is credible so long as the moral high ground is maintained and sustained with actions commensurate with words.
All too often, however, the championing of human rights by States is undertaken in pursuit of “vital”, “strategic” State interests.
This last perspective is perhaps the more accurate one if we are to truly understand the evolving relationship/competition between between the US and China and the innocuous war of words over human rights. It appears to be,
and I dare say, is, a classic great power struggle for influence globally.
A real concern is the possibility of this competition, despite increasing economic interdependence, degenerating into ill-conceived efforts at securing influence in various parts of the world – a 21st century Cold War.
Pessimistic you say? Realistic, one could say.
With all of its imperfections there is need, more than ever, for the UN, and other human rights watch dogs, to do the real, painstaking, frustrating, yet necessary work of enhancing respect for our human rights.
R.R.