US human rights policy in the post-Cold War era

After briefly outlining historic trends in US efforts to implement human rights principles, highlighting constraints, post-Cold War US human rights policy is examined in terms of four main themes: rhetorical support, proactive measures, targeted legislation, and acceptance of international human rights treaties and legal authority. Although the end of the Cold War suggested that the US would dominate the world with impunity, important barriers to the spread of US influence persist, highlighting four governors on US power: the spread of the global economy, lack of automatic support of allies on human rights concern, the lack of sanctions' efficacy, and the sophistication of countries in thwarting US and UN efforts to curb the formers' human rights violations. In addition, there remains US resistance to international treaties, while the US faces competing policy priorities. Human rights concerns also suffer from the continued institutional weakness of key governmental supporters, leaving interest groups and the public to shoulder the burden of human rights policy. It is concluded that the end of the Cold War did not remove human rights policy limitations for the US, which are seen to be deeply rooted in the realities of global and domestic politics.