Copyright by Gregory Krauss 2007 - The University of Texas at Austin
Copyright by Gregory Krauss 2007 - The University of Texas at Austin
Copyright by Gregory Krauss 2007 - The University of Texas at Austin
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Paul Wolfowitz agreed to a meeting. 126 <strong>The</strong> choice for regional bureaus was thus<br />
either to allow the human rights bureau to manage rel<strong>at</strong>ionships with opposition<br />
leaders, or to engage the leaders themselves. If the former, the human rights bureau<br />
controlled an important aspect <strong>of</strong> diplomacy; if the regional bureau agreed to a<br />
meeting, then the human rights bureau won a policy victory. Either way, the human<br />
rights bureau gained.<br />
Another <strong>of</strong> Lister’s contributions, also furthered <strong>by</strong> his contacts with<br />
opposition leaders, was to help maintain the Carter administr<strong>at</strong>ion’s focus on<br />
individual instances <strong>of</strong> human rights abuses. 127 <strong>The</strong> Reagan administr<strong>at</strong>ion made a<br />
show <strong>of</strong> shifting away from dealing with individual human rights problems to the<br />
development <strong>of</strong> democr<strong>at</strong>ic institutions. As part <strong>of</strong> this approach, in December 1983,<br />
the administr<strong>at</strong>ion cre<strong>at</strong>ed the N<strong>at</strong>ional Endowment for Democracy, a priv<strong>at</strong>ely<br />
funded corpor<strong>at</strong>ion with the goal <strong>of</strong> strengthening democr<strong>at</strong>ic institutions<br />
worldwide. 128 Nevertheless, according to Abrams, Lister kept the policy balanced,<br />
reminding Reagan <strong>of</strong>ficials th<strong>at</strong> “no one will believe you mean it if you don’t actually<br />
protect the people and work with the people who are trying to achieve these<br />
things.” 129<br />
Abrams expressed early in his tenure th<strong>at</strong> there was more continuity between<br />
the Carter and Reagan human rights policy than critics believed. 130 To the extent th<strong>at</strong><br />
this turned out to be true, Lister may deserve some <strong>of</strong> the credit. Lister kept the<br />
bureau as honest as possible—focused on human rights abuses wherever they<br />
83