Bait and Switch: Human Rights and U.S. Foreign Policy. By
Julie A. Mertus. New York: Routledge, 2004. 320p. $75.00 cloth, $19.95
paper.
In her timely book, Julie Mertus argues that the United States is one
of the world's leading architects and promoters of international
human rights. However, the United States, much like an unscrupulous car
dealer, “uses its wealth and influence to mislead other states about
its commitment to the human rights framework, appearing as universalist
when actually it is applying double-standards” (p. 210). In other
words, the United States relies on one set of human rights standards for
itself and another set of standards to judge other states. Mertus starts
out her project hoping to discover that human rights norms have become
“deeply embedded,” “institutionalized,” or
“internalized” into the U.S. foreign policy framework.
Instead, she finds that both the executive branch and the Defense
Department routinely override human rights concerns in favor of
instrumental foreign policy gains. This American exceptionalism or
exemptionalism of excusing itself from institutions and norms that it
establishes and purports to follow has prevented human rights norms from
fully embedding themselves into U.S. foreign policy. Mertus points to an
inherent ambivalence and structural inability of the United States to
actually follow through on its very own human rights goals. She finds some
evidence to suggest that it indeed does respect and value human rights,
but there is strong counterevidence to suggest that it is not able to
actually translate human rights aspirations to meaningful policies.