Review: New Global Dangers
| DOI | 10.1177/002070200506000426 |
| Author | Deiniol Jones |
| Published date | 01 December 2005 |
| Date | 01 December 2005 |
| Subject Matter | Review |
| International Journal | Autumn 2005 | 1175 |
| Reviews |
Finally, and in what could be an entire book of its own, Ishay contem-
plates the viability of human rights in an era of globalization. She sees both
dangers and opportunities. This is refreshing considering that while global-
ization is often seen as the victory of neoliberal economic policies that threat-
en global economic equality, it also opens up the possibility of a process,
although incomplete, of political convergence towards democratic principles
conducive to human rights.
While this study provides a wealth of information, its great strength is
also its weakness. The sheer breadth of the book prevents the author from
explaining what is one of the more interesting questions about human
rights: why have they shown steady progress? Like Martha Finnemore in her
most recent book,
The Purpose of Intervention
, Ishay describes a process
but leaves the reader unclear about what drives the gradual but steady
progress of human rights. Is it their inexorable power and legitimacy, some-
thing intrinsic in their appeal to a common humanity? Or are appeals to
equality,as E. H. Carr argued, the language of the weak, who only gain rights
when they acquire political power? Ishay seems to implicitly agree with Carr,
as she notes th at the pursuit is alwa ys incomplete. The b ourgeoisie used
human rights rhetoric to win enfranchisement and the guarantee of private
property, but stopped there, excluding the working class. And the pursuit of
social equality was not accompanied by support for even less privileged
groups such as racial minorities and homosexuals. Yet her primary argu-
ment—that there is a common heritage from generation to generation in
writings and ideas about human rights—suggests that they are powerful in
their own right. Both are likely true, and perhaps Ishay does not address the
issue because she has come to a similar conclusion.
Brian C. Rathbun/McGill University
NEW GLOBAL DANGERS
Changing Dimensions of International Security
Edited by Michael E. Brown, et al.
Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2004. xxvi, 554pp, US$28.00 paper (ISBN 0-
262-52430-9)
Too often, new approaches to security emphasize the normative aspects of
international relations at the expense of the strategic, and methodological
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