The Ambivalence of Good: Human Rights in International Politics since the 1940s examines the genesis and evolution of international human rights politics. Focusing on key developments such as the shaping of the UN human rights system, decolonization, the rise of Amnesty International, campaigns against the Pinochet dictatorship, moral politics of Western governments, or dissidence in Eastern Europe, the book traces how human rights profoundly transformed global affairs. Moving beyond monocausal explanations and narratives prioritizing one particular decade, such as the 1940s or the 1970s, The Ambivalence of Good argues that a complex and nuanced interpretation is necessary to understand the truly global reach of human rights, and account for the hopes, conflicts, and interventions they engendered. It portrays the story of human rights as polycentric, demonstrating how actors in various locales imbued them with widely different meanings, arguing that the political field evolved in a fitful and discontinuous process.

This process was shaped by consequential shifts from the search for a new world order during the Second World War, decolonization, the desire to introduce a new political morality into world affairs during the 1970s, and visions of a peaceful international order after the end of the Cold War. The book stresses that projects pursued in the name of human rights proved highly ambivalent. Self-interest was as strong a driving force as the desire to help people in need, and while international campaigns often improved the fate of the persecuted, they were equally likely to have counterproductive effects.

The Ambivalence of Good: Human Rights in International Politics since the 1940s is authored by Jan Eckel and published by OUP Oxford. The ISBN-13 for this edition is 978-0191086113, with an original publication date on April 11, 2019.