Understanding U.S. Human Rights Policy: A Paradoxical Legacy

"Understanding U.S. Human Rights Policy" provides--beginning with the Nixon administration--a historical overview of the conflict/cooperation/paradoxes involved in the making and implementing of human rights policy. The book provides a thorough, administration by administration investigation of the interplay between human rights issues and foreign policy decision making. In doing so, the author demonstrates that the history of United States human rights policy is a series of different paradoxes that change depending on the presidential administration. Apodaca shows that far from immobilizing the progression of a genuine and functioning human rights policy, these paradoxes have actually helped to improve the human rights protections over the years. Readers will find in a single volume a historically informed, argument driven account of the erratic evolution of U.S. human rights policy over the past 35 years; a period during which concern for human rights became a major factor in foreign policy decision making. "Understanding U.S. Human Rights Policy" provides a comprehensive overview and analysis of the complex and, often vexing problem of understanding the formation of U.S. Human Rights policy that could be used as a supplement in courses on human rights, foreign policy analysis and decision making, and the history of U.S. foreign policy.