Credible champions? Transatlantic relations and human rights in refugee crises

Abstract

The United States and Europe have sustained one of the most durable alliances in the post war period. A central facet of the transatlantic relationship has been the joint commitment to human rights, demonstrated by the enshrinement of human rights in founding documents such as the U.S. Constitution and Declaration of Independence, the Treaty of European Union, the European Charter of Fundamental Rights, the UN Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Living up to the ideals of universal human rights is another matter, and that has been sorely tested with the Syrian refugee crisis. This paper examines the impact of crisis on US-EU relations and transatlantic support for human rights. By comparing the Kosovo refugee crisis of 1999 with the contemporary Syrian refugee crisis of 2015, I show how transatlantic cooperation in this area has weakened owing to the withdrawal of US leadership and fragmentation within the EU.