Synopses & Reviews
This book examines the effects of the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington of 11 September 2001 on America's human rights and counter-terrorism policies towards a number of countries in Asia. Five countries have been chosen for examination, divided into two front-lines states (Pakistan and Uzbekistan), two second-front countries (Indonesia and Malaysia), and a third-front country, China. The paper also looks at changes in US domestic legislation and its treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere in order to analyze the extent to which the US promotion of an external human rights policy might also have been compromised by its own legislative changes as a result of the struggle against terrorism.
The paper concludes that the attacks on US territory, overall, have constrained America's willingness and capacity to promote an external human rights policy with respect to these five countries. However, some attention--especially at the rhetorical level--to these countries' human rights records has been retained to differing degrees among the five states. This degree of difference is not explained entirely in reference to a country's perceived centrality to the struggle against terrorism. It depends on the extent to which the US executive and legislative branches are united-- either singly or in combination--in their disapproval of a state's record, or in their understanding about how best to reach the policy goals that are sought.
About the Author
Rosemary Foot is Professor of International Relations and the John Swire Senior Research Fellow at St. Antony's College, Oxford.
Table of Contents
Introduction
1. US Foreign- and Domestic-policy Realignments after 11 September
Foreign policy
Domestic legislative changes and their effects on civil liberties in the US
Prisoners of war in Afghanistan
2. The Place of Human Rights in US Foreign Policy
The US commitment to an external human-rights policy
Post-Cold War attention to human rights
The George W. Bush administration
3. Pakistan and Uzbekistan: the Frontline States
Pakistan
US-Pakistan relations before 11 September
The importance of Pakistan after 11 September
The US and the promotion of human rights and democracy
Uzbekistan
Uzbekistan's human-rights record
US human-rights policy
Conclusion
4. Southeast Asia: the Second Front
Indonesia
US human-rights policy before 11 September
US human-rights policy after 11 September
Malaysia
US human-rights policy before 11 September
US human-rights policy after 11 September
Conclusion
5. China: a Third Front?
US human-rights policy before 11 September
US human-rights policy after 11 September
ETIM labelled a terrorist organisation
The April 2003 UNCHR meeting
Conclusion
6. Conclusion
Notes