SVG
Commentary
Wall Street Journal

The Twilight of Human-Rights Diplomacy

Sunny idealism couldn’t survive the cold realities of geopolitics

walter_russell_mead
walter_russell_mead
Ravenel B. Curry III Distinguished Fellow in Strategy and Statesmanship
Heads of state of NATO member states are seen gathering ahead of the first general meeting of the 2018 NATO Summit in Brussels, Belgium on July 11, 2018. (Photo by Jaap Arriens/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Caption
Heads of state of NATO member states are seen gathering ahead of the first general meeting of the 2018 NATO Summit in Brussels, Belgium on July 11, 2018. (Photo by Jaap Arriens/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

President Trump’s abandonment of democracy promotion and human rights is among the most striking of his departures from the post-Cold War American foreign-policy consensus. To the despair and fury of liberal internationalists and neoconservatives alike, Mr. Trump often appears determined to conduct American diplomacy as if human rights abroad were not a concern.

But the human-rights recession in U.S. foreign policy was already under way when the president took office. It isn’t hard to see why: Efforts to base America’s foreign policy on human rights and democracy hadn’t been yielding their desired results for some time.

Read the full article at the Wall Street Journal website "here":https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-twilight-of-human-rights-diplomacy-115…