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100 Foreign Aff. 150 (2021)
Practice What You Preach: Global Human Rights Leadership Begins at Home

handle is hein.journals/fora100 and id is 600 raw text is: Practice What You Preach Global Human Rights Leadership Begins at Home John Shattuck and Kathryn Sikkink The international standing of the United States has taken a seri- ous hit over the past four years. Former U.S. President Don- ald Trump's strident America first foreign policy is partly to blame, but so are his attacks on democracy and human rights, both internationally and domestically. Abroad, Trump set the cause of hu- man rights back by embracing authoritarians and alienating democratic allies. At home, he launched an assault on the electoral process, en- couraged a failed insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, and systematically undermined civil rights protections, leaving his successor to grapple with multiple, overlapping human rights crises. As if that were not enough, a host of other problems await, from the pandemic to increas- ing competition with China and the overall decline of American power. Some pundits have argued that faced with this five-alarm fire, Pres- ident Joe Biden cannot afford to focus on human rights at the expense of more pressing domestic and global matters. In fact, the reverse is true. U.S. soft power and national security have always rested in part on the country's commitment to human rights and democracy. If Washington wants to recover lost ground, it cannot afford to ignore this crucial dimension of American power. Restoring that commitment, history has shown, will require im- provements not just to U.S. foreign policy but also to the country's domestic record on human rights. During the Cold War, racial segre- gation in the United States outraged leaders from newly decolonized JOHN SHATTUCK is Professor of Practice in Diplomacy at the Fletcher School at Tufts University, a Senior Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School's Carr Center for Human Rights Policy, and former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor. KATHRYN SIKKINK is Ryan Family Professor of Human Rights Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School. 150 FOREIGN AFFAIRS

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