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The Endtimes of Human Rights Hardcover – Illustrated, 18 Nov. 2013
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"We are living through the endtimes of the civilizing mission. The ineffectual International Criminal Court and its disastrous first prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, along with the failure in Syria of the Responsibility to Protect are the latest pieces of evidence not of transient misfortunes but of fatal structural defects in international humanism. Whether it is the increase in deadly attacks on aid workers, the torture and 'disappearing' of al-Qaeda suspects by American officials, the flouting of international law by states such as Sri Lanka and Sudan, or the shambles of the Khmer Rouge tribunal in Phnom Penh, the prospect of one world under secular human rights law is receding. What seemed like a dawn is in fact a sunset. The foundations of universal liberal norms and global governance are crumbling."―from The Endtimes of Human RightsIn a book that is at once passionate and provocative, Stephen Hopgood argues, against the conventional wisdom, that the idea of universal human rights has become not only ill adapted to current realities but also overambitious and unresponsive. A shift in the global balance of power away from the United States further undermines the foundations on which the global human rights regime is based. American decline exposes the contradictions, hypocrisies and weaknesses behind the attempt to enforce this regime around the world and opens the way for resurgent religious and sovereign actors to challenge human rights.Historically, Hopgood writes, universal humanist norms inspired a sense of secular religiosity among the new middle classes of a rapidly modernizing Europe. Human rights were the product of a particular worldview (Western European and Christian) and specific historical moments (humanitarianism in the nineteenth century, the aftermath of the Holocaust). They were an antidote to a troubling contradiction―the coexistence of a belief in progress with horrifying violence and growing inequality. The obsolescence of that founding purpose in the modern globalized world has, Hopgood asserts, transformed the institutions created to perform it, such as the International Committee of the Red Cross and recently the International Criminal Court, into self-perpetuating structures of intermittent power and authority that mask their lack of democratic legitimacy and systematic ineffectiveness. At their best, they provide relief in extraordinary situations of great distress; otherwise they are serving up a mixture of false hope and unaccountability sustained by "human rights" as a global brand.The Endtimes of Human Rights is sure to be controversial. Hopgood makes a plea for a new understanding of where hope lies for human rights, a plea that mourns the promise but rejects the reality of universalism in favor of a less predictable encounter with the diverse realities of today's multipolar world.
- Print length272 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherCornell University Press
- Publication date18 Nov. 2013
- Dimensions15.24 x 2.54 x 22.86 cm
- ISBN-100801452376
- ISBN-13978-0801452376
Product description
Review
[R]eadable and brilliantly written, as well as... [rich] in information... and... controversial but challenging ideas.
-- Pierre Hassner ― SurvivalChristian Imperialism is a very welcome addition to the field of both missionary history and the history of the early American republic... For historians of missionsit shows that Americans were deeply involved in global missionary work well before they had officially crafted an overseas empire. For scholars of the early American republicit challenges that customary periodization of empire and demands that we look both within and beyond borders to recognize that the American past was never exclusively American.
-- Edward E. Andrews ― Journal of Church and StateAccording to Hopgood, we are witnessing the last gasp of human rights as the prospect of one world under secular human law is receding and thefoundations of universal liberal norms and global governance are crumbling (p. 1). It is from this vantage point that Stephen Hopgood launches into a nuanced and powerful demolition of the normalising metanarrative of the Human Rights agenda.... [T]his is a compelling text as Hopgood grapples with issues of 'who gets to decide global rules' and who gets to define "legitimate exceptions to them" (p. 2). Further, we see Human Rights are not, and never have been, above the fray of national sovereignty as organisations and states have always sought to set the parameters of the political sphere and define who would be excluded from the outset.
-- Brian R. Gilbert ― Critical Race and Whiteness StudiesHopgood's point of view, sure to be controversial, is argued with clarity, passion, and verve. Hopgood challenges those concerned with humanitarianism to look beyond Western-led human rights organizations, especially to activists working within their own communities, for hope. It seems certain that this book will cause both celebration and discomfort, even outrage, within the human rights community. Readers with an interest in human rights policy, humanitarianism, and even cultural history more broadly will find much to like in Hopgood's brisk, witty prose, even if they are discomfited by his arguments.
― Library JournalIn this scathing indictment of the human rights movement, Stephen Hopgood contends that it has sold out its moral clarity for an alliance with interventionist liberal states.... Hopgood's provocation is powerful, and his privileging of locally and nationally inspired activism rings true. He does an excellent job of drawing together specific incidents to support his controversial views.... The Endtimes of Human Rights is a bracing alert for human rights professionals and all who care about global ethics. Scholars, practitioners, and NGO contributors will need to reckon with this important book.
-- Clifford Bob ― Ethics & International AffairsThis is a provocative, angry book–and an important one.... The book is particularly good on the link between human rights and liberalism, and how the larger the human rights non-governmental organization is, the greater the likelihood that it has been tamed by capital, existing to raise money rather than raising money to exist.... This is a disturbing read, the anger driving the narrative, the passion evident in every paragraph.
-- Conor Gearty ― Times Higher Education SupplementReview
This barnstormer of a book is both rigorous and a page-turner, both provocative and careful, both deconstructive and constructive. Stephen Hopgood challenges all fans of human rights with the prospect that the human rights movement is collapsing in its moral authority. Whether readers shake or nod their heads as they make their way through the pages―and I find myself doing both―they will find themselves engaged in a sparkling conversation with a lively intellect.
-- Daniel Philpott, University of Notre DameAbout the Author
Stephen Hopgood is Professor of International Relations, SOAS, University of London. He is the author of Keepers of the Flame: Understanding Amnesty International, also from Cornell, and American Foreign Environmental Policy and the Power of the State.
Product details
- Publisher : Cornell University Press; Illustrated edition (18 Nov. 2013)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 272 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0801452376
- ISBN-13 : 978-0801452376
- Dimensions : 15.24 x 2.54 x 22.86 cm
- Best Sellers Rank: 2,412,273 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- 3,752 in International Law (Books)
- 68,262 in World History (Books)
- 590,314 in Society, Politics & Philosophy
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- Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 3 July 2014Great book
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truth seekerReviewed in the United States on 18 August 20165.0 out of 5 stars For human rights history, read this book.
The book arrived promptly and in fine shape. I am researching human rights at the moment and this is the best book I've found so far.
Amazon CustomerReviewed in the United States on 21 June 20165.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
excelente!!!!
Amazon CustomerReviewed in the United States on 4 January 20144.0 out of 5 stars Demise of the Human Rights Regime
The basic tenet of that book is the distinction between human rights and Human Rights. The first can be full truth, the second fails the test of truthfulness. The capitalized Human Rights Regime is the collective of declarations, conventions and their official international and national institutions. It is a phenomenon that grew quickly from the 1970s and, according to Hopgood, is deemed to expire. For good reason, he thinks. Hopgood's book abounds with examples of how Human Rights Regimists invented norms and institutions that were supposed to 'deal' with gruesome situations, and in the end made no difference. As was the case in Sudan, Sri Lanka and Syria. As is happening with the International Criminal Court (ICC), the 'Responsibility to Protect' (R2P), the Cambodia Tribunal. Those who support these institutions claim that the world tends towards a globalization of transnational justice. But the actual direction, says Hopgood, is neo-Westphalian. Countries and cultures are not converging into a huge human rights pool, they are rather diverging into the separate domains of their political culture, religion and regional power. International human rights organizations, such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, are far from immune from this. Hopgood is an excellent critic: he is sharp, quotes from the widest array of sources and secondary literature, knows how to tell a story and argue a point. At places, one can only hope Hopgood is not completely right. That even if the ICC, the R2P and other UN machinery may collapse, there will be enough left of covenants and monitoring for human rights work to survive - sadder, slimmer and wiser.


