The Ambivalence of Good: Human Rights in International Politics since the 1940s

The Ambivalence of Good explains one of the momentous processes that distinguished the twentieth century from earlier periods: the emergence of human rights and their astonishing if subtle power to transform international relations. Focusing on major actors, such as the UN and Amnesty International, and celebrated campaigns such as the one against the Pinochet dictatorship, the book argues that human rights proved effective yet ambiguous: not everybody who claimed human rights wanted to make the world a better place, and if human rights did make the world a better place, it was often in unintended ways. Human rights thus may provide a grand narrative of our times but one that is complex, polycentric, and does not provide easy lessons.