Drawing on a wide range of evidence—from large-scale cross-national data to original survey experiments and detailed case studies—Rochelle Terman shows how human rights shaming is a deeply political process, one that operates in and through strategic relationships. Arguing that preexisting geopolitical relationships condition both the causes and consequences of shaming in world politics, she shows how adversaries are quick to condemn human rights abuses but often provoke a counterproductive response, while friends and allies are the most effective shamers but can be reluctant to impose meaningful sanctions.
Upending conventional wisdom on the role of norms in world affairs, The Geopolitics of Shaming demonstrates that politicization is integral to—not a corruption of—the success of the global human rights project.
Rochelle Terman will discuss her new book, The Geopolitics of Shaming: When Human Rights Pressure Works–and When It Backfires. She will be joined by John J. Mearsheimer. A Q&A and signing will follow the discussion.
About the Book: When a government violates the rights of its citizens, the international community can respond by exerting moral pressure and urging reform. Yet many of the most egregious violations appear to go unpunished. In many cases, shaming not only fails to induce compliance but also incites a backlash, provoking resistance, and worsening human rights practices. The Geopolitics of Shaming presents a new theory on the strategic logic of international human rights enforcement, revealing why and how states punish violations in other countries when shaming leads to an improvement in human rights conditions and when it backfires.
Rochelle Terman is an assistant professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Chicago and a member of the Pozen Center Faculty Board. She is also a faculty affiliate with the Center for Middle Eastern Studies, the Center for the Study of Gender & Sexuality, the Committee on International Relations, and the Program on Computational Social Science. Her research focuses on international norms, gender, and advocacy, with a focus on the Muslim world. She teaches computational social science at both the undergraduate and graduate levels.
John J. Mearsheimer is the R. Wendell Harrison Distinguished Service Professor in the Political Science Department at the University of Chicago, where he has taught since 1982. Professor Mearsheimer has written extensively about security issues and international politics. His most recent book, with Sebastian Rosato, is How States Think: The Rationality of Foreign Policy.
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