The Foreign Service Journal, June 2020

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | JUNE 2020 35 Human Rights in Foreign Policy From the FSJ Archive FOCUS ON HUMAN RIGHTS Rights and Reagan by Jefferson Morley, March 1982 The Reagan administration needed to do more than fill a position that had been vacant for nine months. The disdain for human rights that the administration had brought to Washington in January failed, if not as policy, then as politics. Diplomacy’s Orphans: New Issues in Human Rights by Tom Shannon, September 1991 We are living through a period of quiet but profound change in the international human rights agenda, which will post new diplomatic challenges to the United States. While the principal human rights issue of the 1980s —political repression—will remain our primary human rights concern through this decade, several new issues have emerged that do not easily fit into our traditional understanding of human rights. Improving State’s Human Rights Reports by Julien LeBourgeois, September 1991 State’s annual human rights reports have been susceptible over time to faddish public and congressional preoccupations, and to changing Executive Branch criteria. Ideological Warrior: An Interview with Michael Novak by John Harter, September 1991 Michael Novak, who served as the U.S. Representative to the United Nations Human Rights Commission, discusses what it’s like to defend human rights at the U.N. Civil (and Human) Rights FSJ Editorial, December 1963 There is no doubt that discrimination in one form or another against racial and religious minorities exists in virtually every country in the world. It is precisely because the United States is trying to make mean- ingful not only its pledges to the Charter, but also its declara- tions of principle in the Constitution and in the Declaration of Independence, that this country occupies the spotlight on this issue. Morality and Human Rights in Foreign Policy by John L. Washburn, May 1977 The Carter administration has just taken office, and is now looking to make human rights a central concern in its conduct of foreign policy. Human Rights and International Order by James Nathan, February 1978 A policy of human rights, like a policy which seeks to delimit “aggression,” knows no natural limit. But if a policy geared to the protection of human rights is to be selective, how is the selection to be made? Human Rights and American Policy in Africa by Armistead Lee, October 1978 Whether considering quiet diplomacy or public confrontation, linking human rights to other conditions in Africa has proven to be a delicate challenge. Why Bother about Human Rights? by Sandy Vogelgesang, May 1980 Some have belittled campaigns to emphasize human rights as “moralistic crusades,” yet there are many legal, cultural and prag- matic incentives for taking a strong stand for human rights.