Rethinking Human Rights brings together a team of authors from fields as diverse as political theory, peace studies, international law and media studies - concerned with a new international agenda of human rights promotion. The collection presents an original and tightly argued critique of current trends and deals with a range of questions concerning the implication of human rights approaches for humanitarian aid, state sovereignty, international law, democracy and political autonomy.

Ten years on from the signing of the Dayton Peace Agreement in November 1995, the legacy of the Bosnian war still shapes every aspect of the political, social and economic environment of the tiny state.

This state of affairs is highlighted by the fact that Bosnia is still under international control, with the Office of the International High Representative regularly using its powers to dismiss elected presidents, prime-ministers and MPs and to impose legislation over the resistance of elected legislatures at national, regional and local level. What has changed in the ten years...

Contemporary foreign policy is increasingly perceived to be about values rather than interests as traditionally conceived. Once marginal, ethics are today held to play a central role in foreign policy.
This new book goes beyond current debates which locate the limitations to ethical foreign policy in the strategic and economic interests of nation-states. Rather than counter-posing interests and ethics, trying to find "hidden agendas," or emphasizing the double-standards at play in ethical foreign policy, this text brings together leading international theorists in order to develop a...