Us Foreign Policy on Transitional Justice

ISBN-13: 9780199338412 / Angielski / Twarda / 2015 / 238 str.

Annie R. Bird

Opis

Since the end of the Cold War, the United States has been a key driver of transitional justice. It has provided crucial political backing, as well as technical and financial assistance for trials, truth commissions, and other measures aimed at helping societies address serious human rights violations. Surprisingly, however, scholars have not analyzed closely the role of the US in transitional justice.

This book offers the first systematic and cross-cutting account of US foreign policy on transitional justice. It explores the development of US foreign policy on the field from World War I to the present, and provides an in-depth examination of US involvement in measures in Cambodia, Liberia, and Colombia. Annie Bird supports her findings with nearly 200 interviews with key US and foreign government officials, staff of transitional justice measures, and country experts.

By "opening the black box" of US foreign policy, the book shows how the diverse and evolving interests of presidential administrations, Congress, the State Department, and other agencies play a major role in shaping US involvement in transitional justice. The book argues that, despite multiple influences, US foreign policy on transitional justice is characterized by a distinctive approach that is symbolic, retributive, and strategic. As the book concludes, this approach has influenced the field as a whole, including the establishment, design, and implementation of transitional justice measures.

Recenzje

This book's systematic approach to United States support (and sometimes lack thereof) of accountability for mass atrocities committed in various countries is a welcome exploration of the expanding field of transitional justice. Especially valuable are the country studies that illustrate the finding that US policy on this matter has been symbolic, retributive and strategic. All three characteristics are positive and negative at the same time. Undoubtedly - if inconsistently - the United States has contributed to the idea that some crimes are so egregious that they cannot go unpunished.

O autorze

Annie Bird is a Fellow at the American Association for the Advancement of Science. She previously worked at the International Center for Transitional Justice, UNICEF, Benetech, the Judicial System Monitoring Programme, and other organizations in West Africa, Southeast Asia and Latin America. She has also taught at the University of California-Berkeley and the London School of Economics.