Professional Affiliation

Associate Professor of Political Science, Purdue University

Expert Bio

My interests in the development of ethical norms in international relations and the influence of nongovernmental organizations on international politics stem from a longstanding curiosity about how rules become established and how they influence our behavior as human beings. In politics and other modes of human life, our highest ideals have been expressed at different times as sets of rules or expectations that we seldom live up to fully and could never be fully enforced. Politicians and scholars of international politics have learned that one cannot simply legislate war out of existence, for example. In the field of human rights, my main topic of research at the Wilson Center, we are forced to recognize that human rights are still violated despite repeated, often eloquent, international articulation of the principles of human dignity and well being. The contrast between words and deeds related to human rights inspires the research I will be carrying out at the Wilson Center. International legal standards of human rights have proliferated since the mid-1970s, accompanied by widespread, nearly global, acceptance of the idea of human rights. In international politics, the field of human rights provides a rich source of emerging normative standards, and various theories can be tested about how governments adjust their behavior in the presence of such "rules." I will be using both statistical data and case studies to better understand the relationship between what one legal scholar (Schacter) has described as "the words, texts, votes, and excuses" that make up the "paper practice" of human rights, and any given country's actual practice as it evolves over time.Since early 1995, I have been a faculty member in Purdue University's Department of Political Science, where I teach graduate and undergraduate courses on international relations, human rights, and international organizations. I was born in Virginia and grew up in the Washington, D.C. area. I received my undergraduate education at Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana. After graduating in 1982, I spent three years working for what is now the Center on Conscience and War in Washington, D.C. In 1987, I received an M.A. in Political Theory from Essex University (U.K.). I received my Ph.D. in Political Science in 1995 from the University of Minnesota, where I specialized in International Relations and Political Theory.My published research focuses on international norms and nongovernmental organizations. My recent book , Diplomacy of Conscience (2001), highlights the role of the international human rights organization, Amnesty International, in the development of international standards concerning torture, political killings, and disappearances. The Chronicle of Higher Education recognized the book as a Nota Bene selection in April 2001. I have also been engaged for several years in a collaborative study of nongovernmental organizations with co-authors Elisabeth Jay Friedman and Kathryn Hochstetler. We have published a number of journal articles analyzing the activities, successes and failures of human rights, environmental, and womenÕs organizations at United Nations conferences.

 

Education

B.A.(1982) Peace and Global Studies, Earlham College; M.A. (1987) Political Theory, University of Essex (United Kingdom); Ph.D. (1995) Political Science, University of Minnesota

 

Experience

• Associate Professor of Political Science, Purdue University, 2001-present
  
   
• Assistant Professor of Political Science, Purdue University, 1995-2001
  
   
• Associate Director/Editor, National Interreligious Service Board for Conscientious Objectors (now the Center on Conscience and War), Washington, D.C., 1982-85

 

 

Expertise

International relations; theories of international norms; international human rights; international nongovernmental organizations (NGOs)

 

 

Wilson Center Project

"International Human Rights and the Gap between Words and Deeds"

Project Summary

I am investigating the relationship between a country's expressions of support for human rights norms and its actual protection of human rights. Governments may express verbal agreement with international human rights norms, while violating the same principles in practice. Through a cross-national statistical study of the effects of countries' participation in international human rights discussions and treaties, supplemented by illustrative case studies, the research addresses two current questions in international relations: the causes and remedies for human rights abuses, and the impact of diplomatic and social expectations on countries' behavior in the international arena.

Major Publications

• Diplomacy of Conscience: Amnesty International and Changing Human Rights Norms. Princeton University Press, 2001.
  
   
• "Sovereignty in the Balance: Claims and Bargains at the UN Conferences on the Environment, Human Rights, and Women," co-authored with Elisabeth J. Friedman and Kathryn Hochstetler. International Studies Quarterly 44 ( December 2000): 591-614.
  
   
• "The Sovereign Limits of Global Civil Society: A Comparison of NGO Participation in Global UN Conferences on the Environment, Women, and Human Rights," co-authored with Elisabeth J. Friedman and Kathryn Hochstetler. World Politics 51, 1 (October 1998):1-35.