The one-year review: Downplaying human rights

Posted By Dov Zakheim Monday, November 2, 2009 - 7:04 PM Share

Surprise?

I was surprised by the administration's deliberate downplaying of human rights issues. One might have expected a Democratic administration to emphasize such concerns rather than to pursue policies that are often ascribed to realist Republicans.

On the other hand, given the president's deliberate and sustained outreach to states with whom America's relations have been chilly at best, all of which have terrible human rights records, perhaps the decision not to mention those rights is not really surprising at all.

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EXPLORE:PRESIDENT OBAMA: THE ONE-YEAR REVIEW, HUMAN RIGHTS, OBAMA ADMINISTRATION

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9:38 PM ET

November 2, 2009

Presuming a Democratic

Presuming a Democratic president in international affairs would focus on human rights only looks at the end of the 20th century, specifically the Carter and Clinton administrations. Truman, John F. Kennedy, and Johnson didn't show much emphasis on human rights, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt's greatest effort in that regard seems to have been the United Nations. Carter came to office on the back of not being like Nixon or Ford and Clinton had the freedom of a vanished Soviet Union to act more as he wished.
As for Mr. Obama, during the campaign he criticized the long term policies of refusing to meet with Iranian, Syrian, and Cuban leaders, his lesser emphasis on human rights should have been anticipated from the start.

Shadow Government is a blog about U.S. foreign policy under the Obama administration, written by experienced policy makers from the loyal opposition and curated by Peter D. Feaver and William Inboden.