A Winner of the 2015 ISA Annual Best Book Award, International Studies Association "Over the last 60 years, the international community has constructed a global human rights system, embodied in an expanding array of principles, declarations, treaties, courts, and transnationally organized lawyers and activists. Yet, as Hafner-Burton makes clear in this important book, the system's aspirations have far outstripped its ... Read moreability to enforce international law and protect norms."
Foreign Affairs "The book exemplifies exactly what I am training my doctoral students to do in their writing projects: instead of creating a research design of their own, to review existing scholarship to arrive at an empirically-informed argument relevant to policy-makers that challenges existing wisdom or weighs in constructively in a debate... Hafner-Burton's call for human rights scholarship to be useful to steward states and for steward states to pay attention, resonates loud and clear."
Charli Carpenter, Duck of Minerva "Hafner-Burton effectively bridges the worlds of scholarship and practice in developing a compelling, informed, and accessible argument regarding how to promote global human rights more effectively. This fantastic book makes meaningful contributions to the academic study of human rights and also offers a compelling vision of a practical strategy for advancing human rights that should be of interest to policymakers and practitioners. Ultimately, Hafner-Burton offers a clear-headed and compelling argument in this highly readable book that should be of interest to anyone committed to making human rights a reality."
Debra L. DeLaet, International Dialogue Show Less