Revisiting the Carter Administration’s Human Rights Policy: Understanding Traditional Challenges for Contemporary Foreign Policy

Abstract

The Carter Administration came to office intent on changing the traditional logic of US foreign policy, namely by promoting a foreign policy set in a framework based on human rights. The Administration sought to make human rights a central tenet of US foreign policy while simultaneously protecting American national interests abroad. However, since early on, critics have considered the Administration’s policy to be inconsistent and indecisive due to its failure to grasp the complexity of balancing many inherently conflicting issues. This paper analyses the Carter Administration’s human rights policy throughout its term in office. It demonstrates how the Administration acknowledged the difficulty in reconciling moral and material issues in the development of its foreign policy. In addition, the paper considers how US human rights policy has informed foreign policy in subsequent Administrations. It highlights the continuous dynamics contributing to the inconsistencies verified between foreign policy discourse and behaviour.