The Divergence Of Ideology And Practice In US & European Human Rights Diplomacy

In the post cold war era, "human rights" has become an increasingly important topic on the agenda of international relations. Generally speaking, the differences concerning this issue are clearly observed when comparing the ideology and practice of the East and the West. However, noticeable divergences also exist within the West camp, especially when it comes to the cross-Atlantic relations.The European emphasis of human rights is one of social equality as well as political freedom, which is deeply rooted in its rich historical and cultural heritages, therefore, not merely reflected or carried forward by the well-known French Revolution; whereas the Independent War of American people has largely helped in shaping the ideology focusing much more on political and civil rights.While many European countries regard international laws an indispensable component for promoting human rights in a multilateral manner; the US tends to play unilaterally. Moreover, the Europeans start to adopt Convention of human rights of a higher standard; the Americans still refuse to integrate economic, social and cultural rights into its national definition.Compared with the US approach, European countries treat human rights more as the goals of their external policies, and are much willing to exercise with flexible policy tools. Such divergence in the ideology and practice of US and European HR diplomacy can actually be identified and explained from three perspectives, namely social history, legal practice and diplomatic traditions. Thus, coloring and even reshaping the fundamental values of the West-democracy, liberty, equality- with US and European characteristics. Nevertheless, the same reasons will also be used for explaining convergence, more often than not.