Windows of Freedom

“Windows of Freedom” presents evidence as to why the Community of Democracies (CD) is such a key structure in the post-cold war era. Mortier highlights the current challenges to state sovereignty and asks us to rethink the relationship between the state, the individual, and the international community. Mortier contends that sovereignty should be denied to states, which do not respect human rights and do not practice democracy. Further, he maintains that the international community, i.e. CD, has the right and the obligation to challenge such state behavior as a violation of acceptable international norms, thereby upsetting over 450 years of international practice forbidding interference in the domestic affairs of nation-states by other states or their representative international organizations.