Human Rights, the National Interest, and U.S. Foreign Policy

Foreign policy decisions are driven by conceptions of the national interest. It serves the national interest of the United States to pursue human rights goals because they advance our security interests; help establish a system of world order based on the aspirations of people and on the rule of law; are geopolitically advantageous by furthering peaceful evolutionary democratization of states; and command popular support, as they reflect fundamental values of the American people. Nonetheless, human rights had virtually no role in our foreign policy until the Carter administration. President Carter made human rights a key focus of U.S. foreign policy. When the Reagan administration began, it denigrated human rights policy, supporting many repressive authoritarian states. Gradually, the Reagan administration took a more positive stance toward human rights, largely accepting the Carter administration's human rights policies by the end of the Reagan years. Given the easing in East-West confrontation, the Bush administration now has a unique opportunity to strengthen and coordinate an international system of states that respect human rights. If the United States does this, our national interests will clearly be served.