The Foreign Service Journal, December 2004

International Organizations Bureau. He stressed the importance of demo- cratic reform as the key to improved human rights performance, a tool that has been a mainstay of U.S. pol- icy ever since. Mark Schneider, a vice president of the International Crisis Group, which monitors global trouble spots, was the No. 2 official in the State Department’s human rights office during the Carter administration. He says that the Democrat-vs.- Republican combat over human rights of that period has diminished considerably, with some exceptions, including whether social issues should be included in the rights agenda. “There is greater acceptance of the legitimacy of pressing human rights concerns as a fundamental part of U.S. foreign policy,” Schneider says. “We have learned that over the long term you don’t advance other interests by staying in bed with a repressive regime.” U.S. security concerns have often been at odds with human rights goals. During the Cold War, the United States supported a slew of dictators in Latin America, Africa and elsewhere because they were politically useful. Perhaps the most disreputable dicta- tor with U.S. backing was none other than Saddam Hussein. During the Iran-Iraq War of the 1980s, Saddam 54 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / D E C E M B E R 2 0 0 4 Human rights have been a key element of American foreign policy since the early days of the Carter administration.