Human Rights, Democracy and Peace

While human rights are often regarded as the single basis of legitimacy for military interventions or global forms of organization in the current debate, in her new book, Ingeborg Maus puts forward the programmatic thesis that human rights can only be realised in combination with democracy and peace.

Aggressive human rights policies against nation states that don’t comply with Western standards destroy the very principle of human rights. Considering the heterogeneity of the international world of states, the much-discussed construction of a world-state could, according to Maus, only be achieved by risking a new world war. A passionate and provocative book.