The Foreign Service Journal, September 2007

20 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / S E P T E M B E R 2 0 0 7 resident Franklin Roosevelt’s 1941 State of the Union address, popularly known as his “Four Freedoms” speech, brought a new dimension to U.S. foreign policy and to international diplomacy. In that address, President Roosevelt enunciated “four essential human freedoms” as fundamental obligations that the world’s govern- ments owed their citizens: freedom of speech and expression; freedom to worship God in each person’s own way; free- dom from want; and freedom from fear. F O C U S O N H U M A N R I G H T S R EASSERTING U.S. L EADERSHIP IN H UMAN R IGHTS T HE U.S. REPUTATION FOR INTEGRITY , JUST BEHAVIOR AND LEADERSHIP IN UPHOLDING GLOBAL STANDARDS IS AT A LOW POINT . H OW CAN IT BE RESTORED ? B Y E DMUND M C W ILLIAMS P Ian Dodds