Lyndon B Johnson once reminisced America’s greatest presidents were “remembered best for their successes in human rights”. At the time, in 1968, the US was reeling from race riots and Vietnam war protests.
President Joe Biden has pledged to put human rights back at the core of US foreign policy and vowed to lead “not by the example of our power, but by the power of our example” — with the underlying notion that the world is better when America leads.
Three weeks into his new job, he already has something to show for it. On Monday, Biden sought a symbolic return to the UN human rights council, a group of 47 countries whose own record on the subject is debatable. His administration is also reviewing arm sales, halting US support for the war in Yemen, and will open up US borders to 125,000 refugees, up from 15,000. It has upheld a designation of abuses against Muslim Uighurs in China as “genocide” and decried Russia’s poisoning and jailing of Alexei…