US Counterterrorism and the Human Rights of Foreigners Abroad

This book examines why the United States has introduced safeguards that are designed to prevent their counterterrorism policies from causing harm to non-US citizens beyond US territory. It investigates what made US policymakers take steps to "put the gloves back on" through five case studies on the emergence of such safeguards related to the right not to be tortured, the right not to be arbitrarily detained, the right to life (in connection with targeted killing operations), the right to seek asylum (in connection with refugee resettlement), and the right to privacy (in connection with foreign mass surveillance). The book exposes two mechanisms - coercion and strategic learning - which explain why the United States has introduced what the authors refer to as "extraterritorial human rights safeguards", thus demonstrating that the emerging norm that states have human rights obligations towards foreigners beyond their borders constrains policy choices. This book will be of key interest to scholars and students of human rights, counterterrorism, US foreign policy, human rights law, and more broadly to political science and international relations. The Open Access version of this book, available at: http://www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.

Monika Heupel is Professor of International and European Politics at the University of Bamberg, Germany. Caiden Heaphy is Doctoral Candidate at the University of Bamberg, Germany, and is working for the German Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (Bundesamt für Migration und Flüchtlinge). Janina Heaphy is a Doctoral Candidate at the University of Bamberg, Germany, and Lecturer at Leiden University, the Netherlands

1. US counterterrorism and extraterritorial human rights obligations 2. Studying the emergence of "extraterritorial human rights safeguards": Theory and research design 3. Detainee treatment, interrogations, and the right not to be tortured 4. Military detention in Guantánamo and the right not to be arbitrarily detained 5. Targeted killing and the right to life 6. Refugee resettlement and the right to seek asylum 7. Foreign surveillance and the right to privacy 8. The power of "universal human rights": Results and implications