ABSTRACT
Discourses of natural rights, the rights of man and, more recently, human rights have been cited by successive administrations to explain the basis, intents and motivation underlying foreign policy decisions. Analysis of the rights-based discourses expressed by all previous US administrations is neither possible within the confines of one chapter nor is it the purpose here. Instead, this chapter has two more specific aims. First, it will explain how the hegemonic discourse expressed by George W. Bush was heralded in the foreign policy discourses of Presidents Woodrow Wilson and Jimmy Carter. Second, the chapter aims to analyze the rights-based discourses of the Wilson and Carter Presidencies utilizing the reflective, rejectionist and productive theoretical explanations described in Chapter 1. In the cases of both Presidents Wilson and Carter the chapter defends a productive explanation and proposes that the reflective account evidences both external inconsistencies and internal contradictions.
