Richard Falk - Achieving Human Rights

In important respects this volume is a sequel to Human Rights Horizons, published by Routledge in the year 2000. The present volume attempts to provide a coherent account of the struggles to achieve human rights in the early years of the twenty-first century. It is written from the perspective of an American living in the United States who is critical of many of the overseas policies pursued by the U.S. government, especially in response to the 9/11 attacks. These policies have tended to divert some positive tendencies with respect to human rights that had been emerging during the 1990s, hopefully not permanently.

As is always the case, I have been influenced and helped by the work of friends and colleagues, as well as by the challenges associated with teaching courses on international human rights. Among many colleagues and friends whose influence has been most notable in my immediate environment of Santa Barbara I would mention Elisabeth Weber, Lisa Hajjar, Vicki Riskin, David Rintels, Rich Appelbaum, David Krieger, and, of course, Hilal Elver.

In this period I have continued to collaborate with Burns Weston, Hilary Charlesworth, and Andrew Strauss on a significantly revised fourth edition of International Law and World Order, a law course book that adopts a normative outlook and is heavily influenced by the expanding agenda of human rights. Perhaps my most important collaborative experience in recent years has been with Andrew Strauss, who has emerged as a world leader in the campaign to establish a world parliament, an important step in the struggle to democratize the norms, procedures, and institutions of global governance.

In recent years, my main teaching has been as a visiting professor in the Global and International Studies Program of the University of California at Santa Barbara. I have enjoyed the friendship and support of those who run this academic program that is so popular with UCSB students, especially Giles Gunn, its current director. I also had the experience in 2007 of teaching a course at the Law School of UCLA, where I had the benefit of impressive students and a most stimulating faculty.

An influential dimension of my life since 1995 has been summers spent in Turkey each year. The extraordinary political developments in Turkey have been fascinating to experience directly, but disturbing because of the extent to which they have been misconstrued from within and without. I have felt challenged to interpret this evolving Turkish political reality as best I could, and have enjoyed a supportive relationship with the important Turkish daily newspaper Zaman. Perhaps more than any other country in the Middle East, Turkey has been a crucible for contending visions of constitutionalism, especially for exposing the deep tensions that exist as between different versions of secularism and the proper scope of religious freedom.

It has again been a pleasure to publish with Routledge, and I am grateful for their consistent support of my work in recent years, as well as their professional efficiency during the production process. I have particularly enjoyed my relationship with Michael Kerns, who has acted as the principal editorial presence in relation to this book, and to Felisa Salvago-Keyes who has been as pleasant as she is skillful in managing the editorial process. And my warm thanks to Sophie Richmond, who has been a skillful copy editor, and heroic in the face of my logistical difficulties.

Most of the chapters are based on lectures, conference presentations, and previously published articles or chapters in edited books. The content has been extensively revised, reflecting my self-critical temperament, but also further consideration of the topics, as well as some effort to take account of events in a rapidly changing world.

As always, those who share the daily routine of my life are most deserving of my deepest thanks. In particular, my wife, Hilal Elver, has been my constant companion and deepest collaborator as we have shaped our life together in Santa Barbara and Istanbultwo contrasting and exhilarating urban experiences. We have struggled together, with the help and affection of friends in both places, to understand and interpret these two engagingly complex countries. I also want to say how much the love and companionship of my children, Chris, Dimitri, Noah, and Zeynep, and their wonderful partners, has meant to me. And finally, our special splendid Vietnamese daughter, Huyen Ngoc Giap, who unfailingly charms and impresses, has already brought us much joy in this new century.