About the Book
Since the end of the Cold War, the United States has been a key driver of transitional justice. It has provided crucial political backing, as well as technical and financial assistance for trials, truth commissions, and other measures aimed at helping societies address serious human rights violations. Surprisingly, however, scholars have not analyzed closely the role of the US in transitional justice. This book offers the first systematic and
cross-cutting account of US foreign policy on transitional justice. It explores the development of US foreign policy on the field from World War I to the present, and provides an in-depth examination of
US involvement in measures in Cambodia, Liberia, and Colombia. Annie Bird supports her findings with nearly 200 interviews with key US and foreign government officials, staff of transitional justice measures, and country experts. By "opening the black box" of US foreign policy, the book shows how the diverse and evolving interests of presidential administrations, Congress, the State Department, and other agencies play a major role in shaping US involvement in transitional
justice. The book argues that, despite multiple influences, US foreign policy on transitional justice is characterized by a distinctive approach that is symbolic, retributive, and strategic. As the
book concludes, this approach has influenced the field as a whole, including the establishment, design, and implementation of transitional justice measures.
Table of Contents:
Acknowledgements
List of Abbreviations
Introduction
Chapter 1: The US Approach to Transitional Justice
Chapter 2: The Development of US Foreign Policy on Transitional Justice
Chapter 3: US Involvement in the Khmer Rouge Tribunal
Chapter 4: US Involvement in the Taylor Trial and Liberian Truth and Reconciliation Commission
Chapter 5: US Involvement in the Colombian Justice and Peace Process
Conclusion
Appendix 1
Appendix 2
Bibliography
Index
About the Author :
Annie R. Bird has worked in the fields of human rights, transitional justice, and conflict prevention for over a decade. She currently serves as a policy advisor on atrocities prevention at the U.S. State Department. She previously worked for the International Center for Transitional Justice, UNICEF, Benetech, the Judicial System Monitoring Programme, and other organizations in West Africa, Southeast Asia, and Latin America. She has also taught at the University of
California, Berkeley and the London School of Economics.
Review :
"In this timely and engaging book, Bird has identified an important evolution in United States foreign policy priorities since the 1990s: the instantiation of accountability and transitional justice as core diplomatic tools to be deployed in the response to conflict and mass violence. Through original research and the lens of several emblematic case studies, Bird traces the way in which these imperatives became concrete policy in the face of countervailing
equities, inter-agency dissension, and sheer bureaucratic inertia. The book offers important insights into how the idea of justice can inform and inspire governmental action while also advancing other more
hard-edged foreign policy priorities." -Beth Van Schaack, Leah Kaplan Visiting Professor in Human Rights, Stanford Law School
"This is an important study of a critical topic - the approach of the USG to transitional justice. The focus on the role of bureaucratic interests and of key individuals is a significant contribution to the literature." -Morton H. Halperin, Senior Advisor, Open Society Foundations
"Transitional justice has been studied from a legal, historical, and philosophical perspective: distilling legal principles, filling in the historical record, and debating principles of responsibility, retribution, and the danger of victor's justice. Annie Bird offers a useful framework for thinking about transitional justice as a distinctive category of foreign policy, allowing us to make sense of U.S. support for transitional justice across multiple
administrations and laying a promising foundation for comparative study of a new category of diplomacy." -Anne-Marie Slaughter, Professor Emerita of Politics and International Affairs, Princeton University
"For an illuminating view of the hitherto untold story of American policy on justice-related decision-making values and interests at stake in periods of political transition, read this book!" -Ruti Teitel, author of Globalizing Transitional Justice
"The United States has played a significant role on issues of post-conflict accountability for the last century, but particularly since the mid-1990s when international criminal justice was 're-born.' In this unique book, Annie Bird traces this history and explains the surprisingly consistent principles that have underpinned US policy, while also exploring the differences that have characterized the approaches taken by successive administrations. In short, she
does a masterful job making sense of policies that may not be obvious to the outside world." -Clint Williamson, Former US Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes Issues
"This book's systematic approach to United States support (and sometimes lack thereof) of accountability for mass atrocities committed in various countries is a welcome exploration of the expanding field of transitional justice. Especially valuable are the country studies that illustrate the finding that US policy on this matter has been symbolic, retributive and strategic. All three characteristics are positive and negative at the same time. Undoubtedly - if
inconsistently - the United States has contributed to the idea that some crimes are so egregious that they cannot go unpunished." -Juan E. Méndez, President Emeritus, International Center for
Transitional Justice
"...the author emphasizes the strategic role of transitional justice in the overall panorama of US foreign policy. In this context, Washington supports such measures when they serve to enhance the nation's international standing or provide a less "costly" alternative to military and humanitarian interventions. Finally, the strategic dimension of the foreign politics of transitional justice also plays an important role in pacifying and containing the lobbying
efforts of nongovernmental actors and in advancing the political agendas of individuals and rival institutions in the foreign policy process." --Frank Schumacher, University of Western Ontario, lH-Diplo
