Article
Dan Baer, Erik Brown
{
"authors": [
"Dan Baer"
],
"type": "legacyinthemedia",
"centerAffiliationAll": "dc",
"centers": [
"Carnegie Endowment for International Peace"
],
"collections": [],
"englishNewsletterAll": "ctw",
"nonEnglishNewsletterAll": "",
"primaryCenter": "Carnegie Endowment for International Peace",
"programAffiliation": "EP",
"programs": [
"Europe"
],
"projects": [],
"regions": [
"North America",
"United States",
"Iran"
],
"topics": [
"Political Reform",
"Democracy"
]
}
Source: Getty
In The Media
The Death Penalty Isolates America
Alone in the Americas and among NATO members, the United States continues to execute tens of prisoners each year and to send dozens more to death row.
By Dan Baer
Published on Sep 16, 2020
Source: Foreign Affairs
On January 22, 2009, his second full day in office, U.S. President Barack Obama signed an executive order prohibiting the use of torture by the U.S. government and revoking legal interpretations from President George W. Bush’s administration that denied protections under international law to certain overseas detainees. Few Americans outside of national security policy circles took note of the executive order. But it sent a clear message to U.S. partners and allies that Obama was breaking with his predecessor and recommitting the United States to the shared values of the democratic world.
As a deputy assistant secretary of state in the early years of the Obama administration, I heard frequently from U.S. allies about the importance of Obama’s ban on torture. My counterparts sometimes also raised concerns about U.S. surveillance, detention, and use of drones. But those enduring concerns didn’t change the perception that Obama believed in universal values—and believed they should apply universally, including to the United States. The torture ban became a kind of metonym for U.S. recommitment to these shared values, and because it addressed a shortcoming that had been criticized by allies and partners, it signaled U.S. commitment to repairing those relationships, too.
About the Author
Dan Baer
Senior Vice President for Policy Research, Director, Europe Program
Dan Baer is senior vice president for policy research and director of the Europe Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Under President Obama, he was U.S. ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and he also served deputy assistant secretary of state for the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor.
- Unstrategic Ambiguity: Trump’s Erratic Approach Leaves Europe Guessing
- NATO’s Northeast Countries Have a Template for Europe’s New Security RealityCommentary
Dan Baer, Sophia Besch
Recent Work
Carnegie does not take institutional positions on public policy issues; the views represented herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Carnegie, its staff, or its trustees.
More Work from Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center
- Who Is Responsible for the Demise of the Russian Internet?Commentary
The Russian state has opted for complete ideological control of the internet and is prepared to bear the associated costs.
Maria Kolomychenko
- Is Opposition to Online Restrictions an Inflection Point for the Russian Regime?Commentary
After four years of war, there is no one who can stand up to the security establishment, and President Vladimir Putin is increasingly passive.
Tatiana Stanovaya
- Russia Is Meddling for Meddling’s Sake in the Middle EastCommentary
The Russian leadership wants to avoid a dangerous precedent in which it is squeezed out of Iran by the United States and Israel—and left powerless to respond in any meaningful way.
Nikita Smagin
- Is Frustration With Armenia’s Pashinyan Enough to Bring the Pro-Russia Opposition to Power?Commentary
It’s true that many Armenians would vote for anyone just to be rid of Pashinyan, whom they blame for the loss of Nagorno-Karabakh, but the pro-Russia opposition is unlikely to be able to channel that frustration into an electoral victory.
Mikayel Zolyan
- After Ilia II: What Will a New Patriarch Mean for Georgia?Commentary
The front-runner to succeed Ilia II, Metropolitan Shio, is prone to harsh anti-Western rhetoric and frequent criticism of “liberal ideologies” that he claims threaten the Georgian state. This raises fears that under his leadership the Georgian Orthodox Church will lose its unifying role and become an instrument of ultraconservative ideology.
Bashir Kitachaev
