Select Publications

2023
Geoff Dancy, Kathryn Sikkink, Mykhailo Soldatenko Patrick Vinck. 2023. “Russia's Willing Collaborators - Translated into Ukrainian.” Ukpravda. Publisher's Version
yakoyu_maie_buti_lyustraciya_v_ukrayini_pislya_viyni_ukrayinska_pravda.pdf
Geoff Dancy, Kathryn Sikkink, Mykhailo Soldatenko Patrick Vinck. 2023. “Russia's Willing Collaborators.” Foreign Affairs. Publisher's Version
russias_willing_collaborators_foreign_affairs.pdf
2021
International Norms, Moral Psychology, and Neuroscience
Price, Richard, and Kathryn Sikkink. 2021. International Norms, Moral Psychology, and Neuroscience. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Publisher's Version Abstract
Research on international norms has yet to answer satisfactorily some of our own most important questions about the origins of norms and the conditions under which some norms win out over others. The authors argue that international relations (IR) theorists should engage more with research in moral psychology and neuroscience to advance theories of norm emergence and resonance. This Element first provides an overview of six areas of research in neuroscience and moral psychology that hold particular promise for norms theorists and international relations theory more generally. It next surveys existing literature in IR to see how literature from moral psychology is already being put to use, and then recommends a research agenda for norms researchers engaging with this literature. The authors do not believe that this exchange should be a one-way street, however, and they discuss various ways in which the IR literature on norms may be of interest and of use to moral psychologists, and of use to advocacy communities.
global_human_rights_leadership_begins_at_home_foreign_affairs.pdf
2020
The Hidden Face of Rights: towards a politics of responsibilities
Sikkink, Kathryn. 2020. The Hidden Face of Rights: towards a politics of responsibilities. New Haven, CT : Yale University Press, 208. Publisher's Version Abstract
Why we cannot truly implement human rights unless we also recognize human responsibilities

When we debate questions in international law, politics, and justice, we often use the language of rights—and far less often the language of responsibilities. Human rights scholars and activists talk about state responsibility for rights, but they do not articulate clear norms about other actors’ obligations. In this book, Kathryn Sikkink argues that we cannot truly implement human rights unless we also recognize and practice the corresponding human responsibilities.
  
Focusing on five areas—climate change, voting, digital privacy, freedom of speech, and sexual assault—where on-the-ground (primarily university campus) initiatives have persuaded people to embrace a close relationship between rights and responsibilities, Sikkink argues for the importance of responsibilities to any comprehensive understanding of political ethics and human rights.

To protect our collective right to health in the current pandemic situation, we need to balance our individual rights with collective responsibilities.  

Read the full article here. 

rights_and_responsibilities_in_the_coronavirus_pandemic_openglobalrights.pdf
2019
Q+A with Kathryn Sikkink
2019. “Q+A with Kathryn Sikkink.” Communique: The Magazine of the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, 23, 12-13. Publisher's Version
qawithks.pdf
Sikkink, Kathryn, Geoff Dancy, Bridget Marchesi, Tricia Olsen, Leigh Payne, and Andrew Reiter. 2019. “Behind Bars and Bargains: New Findings on Transitional Justice in Emerging Democracies: Research Note.” International Studies Quarterly.
behind_bars_and_bargains.pdf
Sikkink, Kathryn, and Averell Schmidt. 2019. “Breaking the Ban? The Heterogeneous Impact of US Contestation of the Torture Norm .” Journal of Global Security Studies 4 (1): 105-122. Publisher's Version
ogy036.pdf
2018
Schmidt, Averell, and Kathryn Sikkink. 2018. “Partners in Crime: An Empirical Investigation of the CIA Rendition, Detention, and Interrogation Program.” Perspectives on Politics 16 (4): 1014-1033.
partners_in_crime.pdf
The Information Paradox: How Effective Issue Creation and Information Politics Can Lead to Perceptions of the Ineffectiveness of Transnational Advocacy
Sikkink, Kathryn. 2018. “The Information Paradox: How Effective Issue Creation and Information Politics Can Lead to Perceptions of the Ineffectiveness of Transnational Advocacy.” Transnational Advocacy Networks: Twenty Years of Evolving Theory and Practice, 26-40. Bogota: Dejusticia.
the_information_paradox.pdf
wrongaboutdictators.pdf
Sikkink, Kathryn. 2018. “Kein Grund zum Pessimismus.” Welt-Sichten December 4. Publisher's Version
70_jahre_un.pdf
Schmidt, Averell, and Kathryn Sikkink. 2018. “Partners in Crime: An Empirical Evaluation of the CIA Rendition, Detention, and Interrogation Program.” Perspectives on Politics 16 (4): 1014-1033. Publisher's Version Abstract
In the years following the attacks of 9/11, the CIA adopted a program involving the capture, extraordinary rendition, secret detention, and harsh interrogation of suspected terrorists in the war on terror. As the details of this program have become public, a heated debate has ensued, focusing narrowly on whether or not this program “worked” by disrupting terror plots and saving American lives. By embracing such a narrow view of the program’s efficacy, this debate has failed to take into account the broader consequences of the CIA program. We move beyond current debates by evaluating the impact of the CIA program on the human rights practices of other states. We show that collaboration in the CIA program is associated with a worsening in the human rights practices of authoritarian countries. This finding illustrates how states learn from and influence one another through covert security cooperation and the importance of democratic institutions in mitigating the adverse consequences of the CIA program. This finding also underscores why a broad perspective is critical when assessing the consequences of counterterrorism policies.
partnersincrime.pdf
Razones para la esperanza
Razones para la esperanza
A Cautionary Note
Sikkink, Kathryn, and Krizna Gomez. 2018. “A Cautionary Note about the Frame of Peril and Crisis in Human Rights Activism.” Rising to the Populist Challenge: A New Playbook for Human Rights Actors, edited by César Rodríguez-Garavito, 171-182. Bogota: Dejusticia. Publisher's Version
rising-to-the-populist-challenge-version-final-para-web-1.pdf
2017
evidencehopeful.pdf
Evidence for Hope: Making Human Rights Work in the 21st Century
Sikkink, Kathryn. 2017. Evidence for Hope: Making Human Rights Work in the 21st Century. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Publisher's Version


 

  • Read the Book Review in the New York Review of Books: Have Human Rights Failed? by David Cole, April 18, 2019 Issue, New York Review of Books
     
del Valle, Fernando Berdion, and Kathryn Sikkink. 2017. “(Re)discovering Duties: Individual Responsibilities in the Age of Rights.” Minnesota Journal of International Law 26 (1): 189–245. Publisher's Version
Timing and Sequencing in International Politics: Latin America’s Contributions to Human Rights
Sikkink, Kathryn. 2017. “Timing and Sequencing in International Politics: Latin America’s Contributions to Human Rights.” International Politics and Institutions in Time, edited by Orfeo Fioretos, 231–50. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Publisher's Version

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