From Victory to Defeat? How Human Rights Infringements in Foreign Policy During the War on Terror Contributed to the Decline of Democracy in the US

Abstract: As democracy globally declines according to the indices that measure the level of democracy around the world, existing literature lines up a wide spectrum of explanations for this decline. However, the impact of foreign policy on the domestic democratic system is widely overlooked. In this research project I have investigated the possible contribution of human rights infringing elements in foreign policy to the decline of democracy in the US.  I have done a single case study with a constructivist approach, US foreign policy in the post Cold War era being the case, focussing on the War on Terror. This is done with Historical Institutionalism as the theoretical framework. The results of this study show that practices of detention without legal charges and torture strain the rule of law and the accountability of officials and violates the value of equality, a core value of democracy. I come to the conclusion that foreign policy does have impact on the quality of the domestic democracy.