The Temptation to Ignore Human Rights

A reader alerted me to an interesting op/ed in the Times of London by Martin Ivens who writes that “The temptation for Gordon Brown and his colleagues is to say that the business of the West is business and to forget human rights and forget our allies on the front line of democracy. That temptation must be firmly resisted.” Ivens goes on to write about Russia’s unfortunate affection for conspiracy theories, paranoia, and the dangerous undertone of beligerrance stemming from the end of the Cold War. Ivens makes the case for why the UK should “make a stink” about the British Council affair in “every international forum,” and why Europe should support the young democracies struggling to survive on Russia’s borders.