Online Book Symposium: Rights as Weapons
Book Symposium: A Discussion on Clifford Bob’s Rights as Weapons
The editors of Ethics & International Affairs are pleased to present an online exclusive book symposium featuring responses to Rights as Weapons: Instruments of Conflict, Tools of Power, a provocative new book by Clifford Bob.
Rethinking the Politics of Rights
Many international human rights advocates have long assumed that rights are natural, universal, indivisible, and absolute–or, as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights puts it, recognition of the “equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world.”
Law, Morality, and Culture in Rights as Weapons
I distinctly remember meeting Clifford Bob three years ago at an International Studies Association conference, and learning about the fascinating ways in which Catalan nationalists employed animal rights to advance their causes. I am happy to see the broader project published in his excellent new book, Rights as Weapons.
Ends and Means: A Response to Rights as Weapons
In Clifford Bob’s latest book, Rights as Weapons, he argues that rights are not political ends in themselves but are rather an effective means by which to win political conflicts. To make this argument, Bob sets aside the moral and ethical aspects of rights and instead focuses on their political components, providing a “systematic account” for the mechanism of political usages of rights.
Sources of Firepower for Weaponized Rights
“Rights” are often portrayed as things that are universal, apolitical, inherent, or natural, and as ends in themselves. But what if “rights” are mere rhetoric, a mobilizing device that can be used in service of any political aim, however liberal or illiberal it may be?
Ruling by Rights: Rule Making and Embedded Normativity
Clifford Bob’s Rights as Weapons offers a gripping description of the manifold ways people use rights-claims to attain strategic goals. In addition to using rights-claims to expand freedom and prosperity, Bob demonstrates they can also be deployed as “camouflage” or “dynamite,” in the service of narrow interests or to play groups against one another.
A Conversation about the Politics of Rights within Rights as Weapons
Clifford Bob’s book Rights as Weapons: Instruments of Conflict, Tools of Power builds a powerful argument that rights can be weapons of political conflict. Instead of taking rights as inherently human, universal, absolute, and apolitical, Bob invites us to consider how activists leverage the rhetorical power of these oft-assumed attributes to mobilize constituencies and deploy and counter rights claims in the pursuit of political goals.
