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Begin New Search Topic Human Rights Political Geography United States Content Type Policy Brief Publication Year within 25 Years

1. Reset Overdue: Remaking U.S.—Saudi Relations

Author:
Annelle Sheline and Steven Simon
Publication Date:
10-2020
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft
Abstract:
• The U.S.–Saudi relationship is long overdue for a reset: The U.S. should push Saudi Arabia to engage productively with the region rather than tolerating policies that undermine stability. • Specifically, the U.S. should pressure Saudi Arabia to end the war on Yemen, end the blockade of Qatar, participate in the development of an inclusive regional security architecture, and respect the sovereignty of other countries and the human rights of Saudi citizens. • To encourage Saudi Arabia to adopt these policies, the U.S. should be prepared to support and invest in Saudi economic diversification and support the development of Saudi nuclear energy. If Saudi Arabia does not respond to these incentives, the U.S. should end all weapons sales to Saudi Arabia and seek other regional partners.
Topic:
Diplomacy, Human Rights, International Cooperation, Sovereignty, Political stability, Diversification, and Economic Development
Political Geography:
United States and Saudi Arabia

2. How to Disrupt Enablers of Mass Atrocities

Publication Date:
02-2013
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Human Rights First
Abstract:
Successive administrations have recognized that preventing genocide and crimes against humanity is in the national interest of the United States. The Obama Administration put this rhetoric into action in 2011 by issuing Presidential Study Directive 10, which elevated mass atrocities prevention to a "core national security interest and a core moral responsibility of the United States" and ordered the creation of a standing atrocities prevention structure in the U.S. government. With far- reaching atrocities prevention efforts now underway in the U.S. government, Human Rights First offers an additional, innovative approach that broadens the scope of current atrocities prevention efforts and opens up new avenues for tackling this persistent and complex problem.
Topic:
Security, Crime, Genocide, and Human Rights
Political Geography:
United States

3. Big Data Is Changing Your World... More Than You Know

Author:
Banning Garrett
Publication Date:
09-2013
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Atlantic Council
Abstract:
“This is some of the best driving I've ever done,” Steve Mahan joked at the end of a ride in the Google self-driving car. Mahan's 2012 drive—to buy tacos for lunch and pick up his laundry—was especially remarkable since he is 95 percent blind. His hands-free test drive (accompanied by Morgan Hill Police Department Sergeant Troy Hoefling and recorded in a YouTube video) would have been impossible not only without advanced sensors, computers, and software, but also without big data, which both enabled development of the driverless car and inform its movement along the streets and freeways of California. The Google car itself gathers nearly 1 gigabyte of data per second as it scans and analyzes its environment. Think of the potential data gathering of 100 million self-driving cars on the roads of the United States. How will that data—100 million gigabytes per second—be transmitted, stored, and analyzed?
Topic:
Security, Human Rights, Intelligence, and Science and Technology
Political Geography:
United States and California

4. How to Integrate Human Rights into U.S.-China Relations

Publication Date:
12-2012
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Human Rights First
Abstract:
When to press China's leadership on human rights, how hard, and with what tools has been an ever-changing calculation, as successive U.S. administrations have tried to balance America's strategic and economic interests in the expanding U.S.-China relationship with America's leadership as an advocate for and protector of universal rights and freedoms.
Topic:
Foreign Policy, Arms Control and Proliferation, Diplomacy, Human Rights, International Trade and Finance, and Bilateral Relations
Political Geography:
United States and China

5. How to Protect and Expand Internet Freedom

Publication Date:
12-2012
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Human Rights First
Abstract:
The rapid development of the Internet presents profound opportunities and challenges for U.S. interests around the world, particularly around the promotion and protection of human rights. The Internet is the steward of our economic, social, and political activity, but clearly the Internet itself is not the advocate for its possibilities: governments are. How the U.S. government organizes itself and collaborates with the businesses in the information and communication technology (ICT) sector to create policies and priorities for the Internet will set the foundation of whether the Information Age will be a success story for human rights.
Topic:
Economics, Human Rights, Science and Technology, International Affairs, and Communications
Political Geography:
United States

6. How to Protect LGBTI Persons around the World from Violence

Publication Date:
12-2012
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Human Rights First
Abstract:
The United States has unique experience fighting violent hate crime and discrimination, and the protection of the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) people has become a signature human rights initiative of the Obama Administration. In 2009, Congress passed the Matthew Shepherd and James Byrd Hate Crime Prevention Act, with bipartisan support and the endorsement of a wide range of constituencies with differing views on LGBTI equality. The law--and the coalition that supported it--is a model of how to marshal the range of U.S. resources to improve responses to all hate crime, including acts of violence based on sexual orientation and gender identity bias.
Topic:
Crime, Human Rights, International Affairs, Governance, and Law
Political Geography:
United States

7. How to Repair the U.S. Asylum and Refugee Resettlement Systems

Publication Date:
12-2012
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Human Rights First
Abstract:
The Obama Administration, as it embarks on its second term, should reaffirm U.S. leadership on the protection of refugees by repairing flaws in the U.S. asylum and resettlement systems. Many of these flaws have persisted for years, undermining U.S. leadership and leaving refugees in difficult and vulnerable situations. The White House should lead this effort and launch stronger mechanisms to safeguard protection throughout U.S. agencies. The administration should also look for opportunities to move some of these repairs forward in concert with broader immigration reform initiatives.
Topic:
Human Rights, Immigration, and Governance
Political Geography:
United States

8. Reshaping the Security Order in Asia-Pacific

Author:
Alain Guidetti
Publication Date:
11-2012
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
The Geneva Centre for Security Policy
Abstract:
The international strategic landscape is evolving at an unprecedented pace. The widespread assumption is that the global balance of power is shifting from the West to the East (and the South), as a consequence of the convergence of two variables: the sustained economic growth of China and Asia over recent decades, and the Western economic downturn since the 2008 global financial crisis. Though interpretations differ on the meaning and magnitude of this power shift, the prevailing assumption is that it reflects the weakness, and for some the relative decline, of the US and the West against Asia's and primarily China's strong rise. The implications of these developments across the Asia-Pacific are deep and have already led to growing strategic competition between Beijing and Washington for preeminence over the Asia-Pacific and new uncertainties over global and regional governance.
Topic:
Economics, Human Rights, and Financial Crisis
Political Geography:
United States, China, Washington, Beijing, Asia, Australia, and Asia-Pacific

9. A Global Trust for Rule of Law

Author:
Mark P. Lagon
Publication Date:
10-2012
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Council on Foreign Relations
Abstract:
The rule of law is critical for people to have a meaningful opportunity to thrive. Still, for billions of people around the world today, the rule of law exists on paper but not in practice. Even though a theme for the United Nations General Assembly High-Level Panel in fall 2012 is rule of law, various UN programs devoted to rule of law have not had a transformative impact. Traditional intergovernmental institutions will never offer enough to achieve systemic change. To supplement them and achieve what they alone cannot, the United States should take the lead to forge a more nimble partnership with public, private, and nonprofit sectors and establish a Global Trust for Rule of Law (“Global Trust”). Similar to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (“Global Fund”), a diverse board of donor states, philanthropists, rule of law experts, and civil society representatives would run this Global Trust. Its purpose would be to build developing nations' capacity to implement rule of law and unleash the potential of marginalized groups worldwide, promoting not only human dignity but, crucially, global economic growth.
Topic:
Development, Economics, Human Rights, International Cooperation, International Law, Non-Governmental Organization, and United Nations
Political Geography:
United States

10. How To Close Guantanamo

Publication Date:
11-2012
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Human Rights First
Abstract:
Nearly four years ago, President Obama signed an executive order committing to close the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay. At the time, there was significant bipartisan consensus, supported by the nation's top national security officials, that Guantanamo undermines U.S. national security and compromises American values. Closing Guantanamo is a signature issue for the president's legacy, and it can be accomplished in his second term.
Topic:
Human Rights
Political Geography:
United States