Human Rights and Realpolitik

Catalog description

Why is it that states around the world frequently 'don't do the right thing' when faced with human suffering at home and abroad? What is it about the international order that has permitted malicious tyrants and others to propagate injustice and carry out atrocity crimes, frequently against their own people? Is the world getting better or worse in preventing human rights abuses? What factors are inhibiting attainment of the aspirational goals of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights? This course aims to explore the role of states and other actors in today's international system in protecting--or not--human beings throughout the world.