Human rights and ideology in foreign policy discourse: A case study of U.S. State Department Human Rights Country Reports 2000–2019

Sonja Kuosmanen

doi:10.1177/0957926521992146

Abstract

The promotion of human rights has faced challenges in recent years in the United States and elsewhere. In this study, human rights discourses are examined in the context of strategic foreign policy rhetoric by the United States. The routine of foreign policy statements is meant to create audiences receptive to U.S. foreign policy aims, but also reveals underlying ideologies and assumptions. The analysis examines U.S. State Department Human Rights Country Reports between 2000 and 2019. The results show that the assumed ideal model of human rights is heavily based on U.S. political tradition. The performance of other countries is evaluated against the ‘exceptionalist’ U.S. model without consideration of different cultural or societal contexts. Linguistic choices are made to highlight the agency of authorities and events, which can be seen as a strategy of diplomatic face-saving. In some cases, countries are evaluated on an unequal basis based on political expediency.

Highlights

In recent years, the human rights movement has faced challenges from developments and trends throughout the world, including terrorism, right-wing nationalism, and authoritarianism
The results of this study demonstrate that the framework of human rights used in the reports draw heavily from U.S political tradition
This study has examined human rights discourses in the context of the United States, focusing on the annual human rights reports produced by the U.S State Department

Summary

Introduction

The human rights movement has faced challenges from developments and trends throughout the world, including terrorism, right-wing nationalism, and authoritarianism. As codified in the First Amendment of the U.S Constitution, has received critical attention (see, e.g., Downing, 1999), as an individualistic view of freedom of speech is seen to ignore the disenfranchisement and exclusion of minority groups from the public sphere In connection with his remarks on the release of the 2018 Country Reports on Human Rights, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo placed the reports in the context of U.S constitutional rights and political traditions and described international human rights as originating from U.S constitutional rights:. The study identified new potential emerging forms of bias related to U.S trading partners

Material and method

Conclusion