Abstract
There has been a vivid tendency this year by the conventional keepers of Washington wisdom to explicate the two presidential candidates' foreign policy views using old frameworks of "hawk" and "dove." Not only is this binary wrong, it fundamentally obscures some rather ironic potentials for how each candidate, if elected president, will focus upon human rights in their foreign policy. McCain's neoconservative view of the world is founded upon the Wilsonian call for democratization-culminating in what he terms a "League of Democracies." To use a concept that Arnold Wolfers first coined, and one which Joshua Muravchik has proffered as well, McCain has at heart "milleu" goals for the world. The U.S.'s prominent position as a great power can not only secure American national interests in anarchy, it can change that notion of anarchy altogether - a world constituted by liberal democracies is one which will be radically more peaceful than one where rogue states reside.
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Recommended Citation
Steele, Brent J.
(2008)
"Human Rights and the 2008 U.S. Presidential Election,"
Human Rights & Human Welfare: Vol. 8:
Iss.
11, Article 5.
Available at:
https://digitalcommons.du.edu/hrhw/vol8/iss11/5
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