Introduction
Once you accept that democracy and human rights are universally desirable and that they should be implemented and respected everywhere,1 the question remains how you can promote this universal respect. It is not because you accept universality that everyone accepts it. How can you turn the norm into a fact? How do you universalise democracy and human rights? And what are the actions you can take and the instruments you can use? This book will not be a success if it cannot help and encourage those people who are willing and able to work for the universal application of democracy and human rights.
Hence, this is not philosophy or theoretical thinking. The focus is on practical political matters such as diplomacy, legislation, intervention, sanctions etc. But it is not political science either because it does not try to analyse, in a scientific way, which actions of foreign policy are useful and efficient. The ambition is rather limited. I merely wish to list the actions that are possible and desirable in a general sense. It is then up to politics and political science to determine which particular action can be used in an efficient way in a particular case.
We must have the courage of our convictions and apply our theories in the real world. Not doing so would be cowardice. If we say that democracy and human rights are universally valid, then we must also say how we can arrive at their universal application and what kind of action this implies, and of course we have to act ourselves. I will take for granted that the problem of the universal validity of democracy and human rights is settled, and I will only address myself to those of us who accept this. The keyword will be "how" rather than "why", and the arguments will be of an instrumental rather than a theoretical nature. I will no longer discuss the goal and the justification of the goal ("what" we want to universalise and "why"), only the possible roads towards the goal and the justification and acceptability of these roads.
Of course, one of the first actions is establishing a good theory of the universal desirability of democracy and human rights. Such a theory will motivate you and will put the weight of your convictions behind your other actions. But it may also convince some people who would otherwise be reticent and who would stand in the way of the universal application of democracy and rights. If you do not know what you are doing and why you are doing it, then you will not persuade anybody that there are good reasons for the universalisation of democracy and rights. However, a good book on the universal value of democracy and rights will never be enough. Not everybody will be convinced by sound arguments. Other types of action, such as force, pressure, bargaining and the promotion of the necessary conditions, will also be necessary.