Human Rights Considerations in US Foreign Policy

Human Rights Considerations in US Foreign Policy

Human rights cannot be separated from the foreign policy of any country that claims to be democratic. The United States uses democracy in all its political and leadership dynamics. One advantage of this is the inclusion of human rights considerations in its foreign policy. The current foreign policy of the United States relies on four major pillars; these are security, prosperity, development, and democracy. Understanding what human rights considerations should be factored in US foreign policy would naturally entail aligning these pillars with the most important human rights.

The first pillar of US foreign policy is security, which entails preservation of safety and wholeness for both internal and external human life, animals, natural resources, and property. The United States was born from strife to end the tyranny of British colonialism. It has also participated directly and indirectly in several other conflicts that threatened its sovereignty such as the Civil War, World Wars 1 and 2, the Vietnam War, as well as that against terrorism. The lesson learnt from all these conflicts about the need to preserve human life and his welfare have been inculcated into the US foreign policy in the form of a commitment to ensuring that innocent human life and property is protected. This pillar of the country’s foreign policy augers well with the human rights to life, own property, freedom of movement, and freedom from torture.

Prosperity is the second pillar of the United States’ foreign policy where the country strives to ensure that the conditions prevailing in her own borders, as well as in the borders of her allies and diplomatic partners enable the citizens to prosper through innovation and hard work. One of the processes that the US uses in this objective is negotiation in order to ensure the people benefit from the best diplomatic input straight out of US government through ambassadors. This pillar of US foreign policy augers perfectly with the rights to owning property, right to vote, right to thought, conscience, religion, as well as right to movement. These are some of the human rights considerations that the US foreign policy makes vis-à-vis prosperity.

Development is very high on the agenda of many countries once issues related to security are sorted out. This is the third pillar of US foreign policy in which the country’s government has dedicated the same attention internally outwards to her allies and diplomatic partners. United States foreign policy dedicates both labor and financial or technical resources to enabling development in these partner states. For this pillar of its foreign policy to work effectively, the US has made considerations to human rights related to owning property, life, and freedom from torture, freedom to vote, freedom of speech, freedom of thought, conscience, and religion, as well as rights to fair trial.

The last main pillar of the current US foreign policy is democracy. The importance of democracy to the prosperity, security, and development of this country has ensured that it gets recruited into its foreign policy. The US has a strong desire to ensure that fair democratic processes and structures are established among her allies and diplomatic partners. This pillar of her foreign policy is associated with the human rights to vote, freedom of movement, freedom of thought, conscience, and religion, as well as rights to freedom of speech.

Principles the US’s Foreign Policy must Consider Relative to Human Rights

There are several principles that the United States must make concerning human rights while exercising its foreign policy. These principles ensure that the foreign policy activities and strategies consider human rights alongside other predetermined objectives. The first principle is establishing and maintaining a balance of power internationally that enables peace and prosperity for all nations. This principle is intended to enable all countries the United States has diplomatic relations with to operate within certain parameters that ensure mutual and collective peace and prosperity. This principle is related to the human rights that guarantee the freedom of movement, right to life, right to freedom of speech, and freedom of thought, conscience, and religion.

The second principle that predicates the US foreign policy is support for Western values that are espoused in a certain creed characterized by liberalism, egalitarian values, and democracy. Unlike other parts of the world that subscribe to other creeds and principles that do not guarantee liberalism and democracy, the West, more so United States has prospered and thrived due to these aspects of life. Therefore, US foreign policy seeks to spread these ideals that have propelled her economic, social, and political developments to other parts of the world through her foreign policy. The principle underpinnings are connected to human rights associated with life, property, movement, voting, thought, speech, conscience, and religion.

Another principle on which US foreign policy depends is protection for US national security and its autonomy. This is one of the most important principles of US foreign policy because of her vast size, great natural and financial resources wealth, and strategic population diversity. This principle seeks to protect all US territory and her assets both within the borders and out of it. Although every county is entitled to the right to protecting its borders and interests, the US takes this very seriously. So much that it forms a significant portion of its foreign policy associated with the rights to vote, life, owning property, movement, and speech.

Non-entanglement with Europe also features highly on US foreign policy principle based on historical and tactical reasons. The US was formed by ambitious settlers who had suffered from persecution and droughts occasioned by monarchs and aristocratic families in old Europe. Therefore, the inhabitants of the American continent have always been suspicious of Europe’s intentions with the American continent more so considering the British, French, and Spanish colonialism agenda in the previous centuries. Therefore, although Europe forms one of the largest, most powerful allies for the United States, it remains tactical with this relationship. This principle aligns with the human right to life, voting, property, movement, and free speech.

The last major principle on which US foreign policy is predicated touches on geopolitical considerations. Essentially, this principles assumes the US to be organic in nature and in need of a constant supply of natural and human resources from other partners and allies. Therefore, the country’s foreign policy projects interests that are of a symbiotic nature to all countries that have diplomatic relations with the US for supply or raw material,  human resources, technical assets, and intelligence related to various sensitive issues. The principle relates to human rights associated with life, owning property, movement, thought, conscience, and religion, as well as voting.

Application of US Foreign Policy Principles

Case Study 1

The recent killing of an Arabian journalist and activist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi Arabian operatives has shocked the world. Most of the world viewed the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia through the lens of Islamic conservatism, never along the lines of a rogue state keen to suppress any activist questioning human and social rights violations. Even more disturbing was the fact that President Donald Trump seems to support the prince of Saudi Arabia who is suspected of having orchestrated the assassination. Donald Trump was not only maintaining good relations with an important ally in the volatile Middle East, he was also exercising US foreign policy.

Two principles in US foreign policy justify President Donald Trump’s ironic course of action; non-entanglement with Europe and maintenance of the US geopolitical considerations. Jamal Khashoogi was assassinated in the Saudi Arabian consulate in Instanbul, capital city of Turkey. Turkey is a relatively large European country that has ties to both Russia and the Middle East through its large Islamic population. Therefore, getting involved directly with these messy relationships would have seen the US foreign policy of non-entanglement with Europe breached. Additionally, Europe was keen to see the US reaction to such a direct violation of human rights on its soil in order to gain leverage in other related matters, but President Trump remained by his strategic ally in the Middle East.

Another principle that explains the US President’s course of action is her geopolitical ties to the two countries involved. Although Turkey is a key ally and diplomatic partner in both the Middle East and Asia, it does not sell millions of barrels of crude oil to the oil-hungry US economy. Therefore, President Trump exercised the principle of maintaining US geopolitical considerations very carefully in choosing to side with the KSA.

Case Study 2

A large part of the reason the United States is one of the greatest nations on the planet is her diversity. Most of the people that have contributed to this diversity were refugees who fled from parts of Europe and Asia, as well as African slaves and Native Americans. However, the same refugees also cause major problems currently for the country in terms of population control, economic pressure, crime and social problems, as well as terrorist threats. President Donald Trump made such considerations in his effort to control and even stop immigration into the United States by refugees seeking asylum.

The first US foreign policy principle that the US president made was support for Western values. The continued influx of refugees seeking asylum in the US threatens her social and cultural foundations are these refugees also import their own cultures, languages, and ideals. President Donald Trump supports the conservative type of life that is hinged on Western ideals made and developed by the United States by its settlers. Therefore, his move to stop refugees diluting these ideals and cultures is predicated on the mentioned principle of the country’s foreign policy.

Another principle that informed President Donald Trump decision concerning refugees seeking asylum in the US was protecting US borders and autonomy. Not all refugees come seeking innocent asylum as demonstrated in certain European countries where terrorists and radical groups formed from asylum seeking refugees. The US foreign policy is very keen to protect her boundaries even if it means turning vulnerable refugees away based on these modern threats and some historical considerations.

Case Study 3