Human Rights in US Foreign Policy

In US foreign policy, Human rights are always a combination of humanitarian concerns and strategic interests. In other words, the United States is pursuing a combination of normative goals (promotion of human rights) and material strategic goals (preserving national security, strengthening economic relations). US has initially tried to include issues such as morality, protection of individual rights, and democracy promotion in its foreign policy calculations. These efforts became more prominent after World War II,and in the post-Cold War, foreign aid and humanitarian concerns emerged as an impor-tant tool in preventing terrorist attacks in US foreign policy. September 11 attacks changed the policy of the George W. Bush’s Administration and the American Congress towards the US position in the world and respecting, promoting, and protecting human rights in the foreign policy. The paper seeks to address the following questions: what role do human rights generally have in US foreign policy and what changes have been witnessed during George W. Bush’s presidency? The paper summarizes the history and status of human rights in US foreign policy, reviews the status of human rights in US foreign policy in the George W. Bush’s administration and pursuing those policies to-wards the Middle East region, and finally examines the main actors and the challenges facing implementation of human rights in US foreign policy.