The Great Leap Backward: How Collective Identities and the Rise of China Poses a Challenge to the International Human RIghts Regime

• In Event: International Relations: On the Nature of Hegemony and Regimes

Abstract

This paper fits into a larger research agenda that examines the development of the human rights regime and its current role in international politics. Using a constructivist lens, we argue that the strength of the current human rights regime is based on identity and norm development. This paper examines the challenge to the regime posed by counter identities. The strongest challenge rests on the notion of group rights, rather than individual rights, as the appropriate societal construct. For much of the world, group rights trump individual rights and any conception of human rights should be based on the needs of the whole. Different variations of group rights have emerged in various parts of the world, most notably in the form of Asian values and African values. A second challenge can be seen with the emerging power of China. China has long eschewed the western conception of human rights as American imperialism. As China’s importance in international politics grows, China has begun to develop a counter identity in which human rights are second to statism. We find the current regime to continue to dominate international politics although the counter identity supported by China will likely pose the most serious challenge to the future of the regime.

Authors

• Rhonda L. Callaway, Sam Houston State University

• Julie Harrelson-Stephens, Stephen F. Austin State University