Do Rights Make Fights?

Abstract

Fighting for Rights: From Holy Wars to Humanitarian Military Interventions. By Tal Dingott Alkopher. Farnham, UK: Ashgate Press, 2013. 209 pp., $94.95 hardcover (ISBN-13: 978-1-40944-539-5). Tal Dingott Alkopher's 2013 book, Fighting for Rights , provides an interesting glimpse into three periods of international relations to help uncover the social context underpinning the use of force. From a constructivist standpoint, the book argues successfully that rights have been redefined over the ages and asserts (less successfully) that rights are the basis for war over time and space. As a post-positivist account that deliberately eschews causation, the book will disappoint those trying to find insights into patterns for why wars take place. As a constructivist account that provides insights into how legitimate force is understood across different time periods, the book satisfies the hunch that the justification for (if not cause of) violence has changed throughout history. Alkopher's thesis is that the definition of rights in different periods provides the basis for wars in the form of a “chance…to defend” rights that are perceived to be violated (pp. 28, 40). Alkopher's argument is that “people's expectations of what they can and should do [are] largely shaped by their ideas of rights” (pp. 1–2) and that actions such as war are based on perceived violations to such rights. The key to this claim centers on the definition of rights: “that which grants a right-holder positive power” of benefits and “negative power” in terms of responsibility and obligations “toward those …