Ted Piccone Photo: Private

The international human rights norms and systems developed over the last 75 years are facing renewed pressure due to competing standards and flagrant violations from a host of hot and cold conflicts.

The overarching geopolitical battle among China, Russia and the transatlantic community has intensified, with human rights as one of the fronts for contestation and concern. While the global infrastructure for monitoring and alleging abuses is fairly robust, the actual state practice for respecting norms and holding violators accountable is weak.

The inside game of diplomatic maneuvers over naming and shaming and funding for monitors and courts continues in fits and starts.

The greater threat to the international human rights movement, however, is derived from two sources: a wholesale undermining of the system’s foundations due to China’s attempt to rewrite fundamental understandings of how the system works, and the gross disregard for human rights and international law evinced by such actors as Russia, Israel (with U.S. support), and Iran.

This November’s elections in the United States could have a major effect on whether these trends continue to get worse or can be stopped and even reversed.

Our speaker will address the key features and drivers of these trends and identify potential remedies.
 

Bio

Ted Piccone is a nonresident senior fellow in the Strobe Talbott Center for Security, Strategy, and Technology in the Foreign Policy program at the Brookings Institution - a nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C.

Piccone served eight years as a senior foreign policy advisor in the Clinton administration, including on the National Security Council staff, at the State Department’s Office of Policy Planning and the Office of the Secretary of Defense at the Pentagon. 

Full bio: Ted Piccone

Ted Piccone spoke to CBS during U.S. diplomatic row with Venezuela
 

More than five years ago, back in January 2019, Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro ordered the closure of his country's embassies and consulates in the U.S. 

Venezuela to close U.S. embassy, consulates: Maduro

This happened after the Trump administration had backed his opposition. Brookings Institution senior fellow Ted Piccone spoke to "Red & Blue" about the unfolding conflict in South America (see VIDEO above).