Freedom on Fire: Human Rights Wars and America’s Response

by John Shattuck

As the chief human rights official of the Clinton Administration, John Shattuck faced far-flung challenges. Disasters were exploding simultaneously--genocide in Rwanda and Bosnia, murder and atrocities in Haiti, repression in China, brutal ethnic wars, and failed states in other parts of the world. But America was mired in conflicting priorities and was reluctant to act. What were Shattuck and his allies to do? This is the story of their struggle inside the U.S. government over how to respond. Shattuck tells what was tried and what was learned as he and other human rights hawks worked to change the Clinton Administration's human rights policy from disengagement to saving lives and bringing war criminals to justice. He records his frustrations and disappointments, as well as the successes achieved in moving human rights to the center of U.S. foreign policy. Shattuck was at the heart of the action. He was the first official to interview the survivors of Srebrenica. He confronted Milosevic in Belgrade. He was a key player in bringing the leaders of genocide in Bosnia and Rwanda to justice. He pushed from the inside for an American response to the crisis of the Haitian boat people. He pressed for the release of political prisoners in China. His book is both an insider's account and a detailed prescription for preventing such wars in the future. Shattuck criticizes the Bush Administration's approach, which he says undermines human rights at home and around the world. He argues that human rights wars are breeding grounds for terrorism. Freedom on Fire describes the shifting challenges of global leadership in a world of explosive hatreds and deepening inequalities.

400 pages, Hardcover

First published November 15, 2003

Reviews

[Michael VanZandt · Rating 3 out of 5]

John Shattuck was a political appointee in the Clinton administration, selected as the human rights honcho at the State Department. In this book, he openly shares the struggle to find an honored place for human rights within the politics and bureaucracy of Washington and abroad. Let's just say: it's a bleak picture. Shattuck arrives in Washington at a moment when the world is embarking on a new chapter in geopolitical relations. The collapse of the Soviet Union leaves the US as the sole hegemony, and they handle it about as well as a fifth grader at his first middle school dance ... that is, awkwardly.

For all the rhetoric of freedom and traditional American values. It becomes clear that such convictions become victim not only to bi-partisan dueling of Capitol Hill but also contentious factions within an administration. In the accounts, Clinton is not always portrayed positively. Clearly, he is a well-intentioned idealistic child of the Sixties, but the pressure of the office in the early-goings buckle the cavalier. After all, he has earned the nickname Slick Willy, political astuteness is his forté.

With the horrors of Rwanda, Bosnia and Haiti and the diplomatic bouts with China, Shattuck lends a valuable perspective. His conclusions miss the mark a bit. Indeed, he is not an international relations scholar and his points come off as a little too prosaic. The narrative plods a little at times, but the intention is always admirable. He wrote this in 2003 and it is painful to reflect on the years to follow and how little his lessons colored our international policy.