Download Week 13.2 – Human rights

Notes 13.1 - 13.2
Windham E. Loopesko
INTB 3000 Fall 2013
University of Colorado – Denver
November 11-15, 2013
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Monetary system; human rights
11/11-15/2013
Week 13.1 – The world financial
system
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Framework dates back to Bretton Woods
Agreement (1944)
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A bias towards a liberal economic order
The US steps up as world leader
The fixed exchange rate system ended in
1972, when US suspended dollar
convertibility
The controversial system remains largely
intact
Monetary system; human rights
11/11-15/2013
Week 13.1 – Mercantilism vs.
liberalism
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Mercantilism (economic nationalism) –
government intervention to maintain a trade
surplus (import restrictions, export promotion,
stimulating domestic production)
Liberalism (“laissez-faire”) – keeping
governments out of economic decision-making,
allowing a larger private sector role
Mercantilism – China, Japan . . .
Monetary system; human rights
11/11-15/2013
Week 13.1 – The weakening
American hegemony
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The US as hegemon – economically since
WWII; politically as well since Cold War end
Rise of Global South, euro crisis demonstrate
weakening US role
More frequent monetary crises with
increasingly wide effect (leading to IMF rise)
The free trade regime in question (the failure
of the Doha Round)
Monetary system; human rights
11/11-15/2013
Week 13.2 – Human rights
background
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Human rights – a new and rapidly evolving
area of international relations
Responsibility to protect (R2P)– outside
intervention may occur if national authorities
are unable or unwilling to safeguard their
populations (all people have a right to certain
basic protections as human beings
What rights does R2P cover?
Monetary system; human rights
11/11-15/2013
Week 13.2 – Communitarianism and
cosmopolitanism
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Communitarianism – leaders of sovereign
states have moral obligations to those living
within their borders – not humanity as a whole
Cosmopolitanism emphasizes humanity as a
whole, rather than national states; it holds that
all individuals have rights by virtue of being
human that no state can deny.
Monetary system; human rights
11/11-15/2013
Week 13.2 – Human rights –
groups protected
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Human rights protection matters for 3 groups:
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Women have less access to education, jobs with
less prestige, less pay and barriers to advancement
Indigenous peoples are members of ethnic groups
native to a location now controlled by another state
Refugees are individuals whose religion, ethnicity,
political opinions or membership in a social group
make them targets of persecution and force them to
leave their homes
Monetary system; human rights
11/11-15/2013
Week 13.2 – Current trends in
human rights
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Human rights are increasingly recognized
Enforcement remains a problem
Guidelines for halting abuses remain a problem
Arguments for protecting human rights are
difficult to separate from those advancing
national interests
Monetary system; human rights
11/11-15/2013