Between Cosmopolitan and American Democracy: Understanding US Opposition to the International Criminal Court

In: International relations: the journal of the David Davies Memorial Institute of International Studies, Band 17, Heft 2, S. 195-211

Abstract

The International Criminal Court can be seen as a cosmopolitan response to the problems of global democracy. This article demonstrates how opponents of the Court use a concern for international order to disguise a policy motivated by a narrow conception of the national interest. US opposition reveals the extent to which it fears being held accountable for the way America uses the great power veto on the UN Security Council. America's opposition to the Court has also succeeded in bringing to the surface the extent to which American foreign policy is driven by communitarian conceptions of democracy & international society. Despite promising to hold power accountable for egregious human rights violations, the Court is considered a threat to American sovereignty & dismissed as undemocratic. The article argues that this communitarian understanding of democracy promotion will be increasingly problematic as the processes of globalization undermine the capacity of states to guarantee human rights. [Copyright 2003 Sage Publications Ltd.]