State Terrorism and Human Rights: International Responses since the End of the Cold War

by Duncan; Gillian

• ISBN13: 9780415629072
• ISBN10: 0415629071
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 2013-04-04
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

This book aims to improve understanding of the broad trends in the use of political violence by examining the use of state terror in world politics. The ending of the Cold War and the overthrow of communism in Eastern Europe led many to assume that this presaged the demise of the one-party terror regime and acceptance of Western concepts of democracy, freedom and human rights throughout the international system. But of course this did not end state terror. The totalitarian one-party state still exists in North Korea and China, and there are numerous military regimes and other forms of dictatorship where the use of terror techniques for internal control is routine. While there are some effective multilateral measures that can be taken to discourage and reduce state sponsorship of terrorism as a weapon of intervention in foreign states, the international community generally and the major democracies in combination, face huge difficulties in attempting to influence those regimes that are inflicting major human rights violations on their own populations by waging state terror. For most states, almost certainly including the majority of liberal democracies, the international norms of non-intervention have tended to restrict government and IGOs to expressions of humanitarian concern, condemnatory resolutions at the UN, and perhaps support for international economic sanctions against the offending regime. The contributors to this book analyse the major types of international response to state terror since the Cold War and their outcomes and wider implications for the future of international relations. This book will be of much interest to students of terrorism studies, political violence, human rights, genocide, and IR in general.