Human Rights and Interests in Trump's Foreign Policy Discourse: Based on the US Department of State's Human Rights Reports

Since 1977, the US Department of State has published annual reports on human rights practices in various countries. These reports are premised on the core principles and values of liberalism. The following paper examines the rhetoric and discourse used in such reports, concentrating on "Executive Summaries" prepared under Trump's presidency about international actors such as Iran, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and Israel. The paper’s question is: What rhetoric and discourse were used in the US Department of State's human rights reports on China, Russia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Israel under Trump's presidency? This study uses an analytical-interpretive method to examine this hypothesis: the rhetoric and discourse used in human rights reports about actors such as Israel and Saudi Arabia are neutral and friendly, whereas reports about Iran, China, and Russia are biased and unfriendly. In these reports, the US Department of State represents its allies' political systems (for example, Israel) as multi-party democracies while portraying its adversaries' political systems (for example, Iran, China, and Russia) as authoritarian, one-party, and totalitarian regimes. As a result, the United States promotes its ideological identity using specific rhetoric, portraying its opponents as "the other" and therefore excluding them. In a nutshell, the rhetoric and discourse used in the aforementioned reports are influenced by and serve the policies and macro interests of the United States.