Outposts of tyranny
From Biocrawler, the free encyclopedia.
Outposts of tyranny is a term used by United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice for countries where, in the opinion of the United States government, the government is oppressive and shows contempt for democracy and human rights. Rice used the term during confirmation hearings before the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, identifying Belarus, Myanmar, Cuba, Iran, North Korea and Zimbabwe as examples.
The term has often been compared to President George W. Bush's phrase, "axis of evil," but the terms are not identical. "Axis of evil" refers to countries thought to be developing weapons of mass destruction, while "outposts of tyranny" refers to a country's internal political system. The State Department has not used the term "outposts of tyranny" officially. The North Korean government took strong exception to the label, declaring that it would not return to six-party talks on the Korean nuclear weapons crisis until the United States apologized. Secretary of State Rice insisted that this is not a list of invasion targets.
Although the U.S. government has castigated those states designated as "Outposts of tyranny" for their human rights records, it has maintained friendly relations and even alliances with some other governments with poor human rights records. The U.S. government rarely criticizes in such strong terms states such as Egypt, Indonesia, the People's Republic of China, Saudi Arabia and Uzbekistan. Rice's speech did not mention these countries, although the State Department criticizes all of them in its annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices.
External links
- Opening Statement by Dr. Condoleezza Rice (http://foreign.senate.gov/testimony/2005/RiceTestimony050118.pdf) (pdf format)
- At-a-glance: 'Outposts of tyranny' (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4187361.stm) - BBC News - January 19, 2005
- Excerpts: Condoleezza Rice (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4184751.stm) - BBC News - January 18, 2005
