The Foreign Service Journal, June 2011

J U N E 2 0 1 1 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 63 democracy promotion as a way to sup- port right-wing dictatorships — but ironically, the shift would ultimately strengthen the cause of human rights. In his 1975 Nobel Peace Prize ac- ceptance speech, Russian physicist and dissident Andrei Sakharov expressed concern that future revolutions would define — and contaminate — the morality of human rights. But as Moyn documents, such worries were need- less. We see the vitality and universal ap- peal of the concept in the ongoing in- ternational interventions in Libya and Côte d’Ivoire — and, perhaps even more importantly, in the idealism that millions of Egyptians attach to their right to vote, which they clearly regard as both their human right and as a practical tool to stop corruption and re- pression. It is hard to set a bottom line on as serpentine a subject as human rights. But Moyn comes close in this excel- lent history when he writes, “From having triumphed because it lacked a political blueprint, the human rights movement was forced to draw up plans to remedy a crisis-ridden world.” Elizabeth Spiro Clark, a retired FSO, writes widely on global democratiza- tion both in the Foreign Service Jour- nal and other media. She has been a consultant and official elections mon- itor for the National Democratic In- stitute in Lebanon, Jordan and Yemen. B O O K S Have some- thing to say? The FSJ wants to know! Send us your Letter to the Editor OR Speak Out about something that’s on your mind! E-mail: journal@afsa.org All submissions are edited for style, format, grammar and punctuation, and must meet FSJ editorial guidelines.