The contribution of international powers to promoting human rights in Iraq: An evaluation study of the roles of the United States and the European Union

Abstract

External forces represented by states, international institutions,
or global value systems and standards often have different roles and
contributions in promoting democracy and human rights, directly or
indirectly. At the level of international institutions, the United Nations
has made clear efforts to call for the adoption of good governance
practices and respect for cultural and political diversity, without
promoting a specific political system of government. On a different
path, the United States and then the European Union adopted a
consistent perspective in promoting issues of democracy and respect
for human rights in accordance with the liberal-capitalist perspective.
Despite the similarity of the political objectives of both the United
States and the European Union behind promoting democracy and
supporting human rights issues in Iraq, the difference in the means
used between soft power and hard power produced somewhat
different outcomes for their policies at the level of enhancing human
rights conditions and the level of local acceptance of them.