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U.S Human Rights Intervention Essay

Decent Essays

Should the U.S. intervene to prevent or end violations of human rights (including genocide) in foreign countries when these violations do not directly affect other American interests?
The United States is a growing global power and presence. Most other countries are not. We are often called upon to engage in conflict situations like preventing violations of human rights and genocide. Intervening only where our national interest is concerned would only bring about negative reactions, which could undermine our effectiveness and especially our international credibility. Therefore, the U.S. should seek to intervene in and prevent violations of human rights not only where we have other interests but in most other …show more content…

should intervene whether national interest are involved or not because this will continue to ensure that the U.S. plays a major role in shaping other countries foreign policy and remaining a key player in world politics. Editor and Author, Robert Kagan maintains in his book, “American Power – A guide for the perplexed” that American “national interests” need to be interpreted broadly to take into account the country’s position as world leader.
Intervening only where our interests are involved will make other countries suspicious in their dealings with the U.S. in most other aspects. If countries realize that the U.S. intervenes only when American national interest is involved, they might become hostile to U.S. advances because they might think the U.S. wants to gain something from them. In short, other countries would regard us as a selfish country, only concerned with human rights internally and concerned with where we can gain externally. Acting only where our national interest are concerned may open up opportunities for endless frivolous complaints to be lodged against the United States as a global power and presence.
Lastly, if U.S. intervention in the prevention of human rights is based solely on other American interests, our world today will be a “world of crisis”, so to speak, because such crimes as genocide, crimes against humanity, violations of human rights and humanitarian law would be much more commonplace and no

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