Beyond the Backlash: Review of <i>The Geopolitics of Shaming: When Human Rights Pressure Works—And When it Backfires</i>

Abstract Kate Cronin-Furman reviews Rochelle Terman's The Geopolitics of Shaming: When Human Rights Pressure Work-and When It Backfires. Terman offers a theory of human rights shaming and its impact that focuses on the relational context within which such shaming occurs. The book's core contention that shaming may have little to do with genuine interest in improving target states' human rights performance anchors a novel account of backlash and the strategic weaponization of stigma. Its attention to the complex motivations that underly human rights shaming, and the multiplicity of audiences involved, are insights that extend beyond the state-to-state relationships it theorizes.