PUBLICATIONS BY Steven Groves
Research
Commentary
Media Appearances
2008 Research
August 07, 2008
The Inequities of the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination
By Steven Groves
(Backgrounder #2168)
By ignoring U.S. reports and submissions in favor of the baseless accusations of a highly ideological NGO, the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination has demonstrated that it is not a legitimate partner in the effort to address racial discrimination in the U.S. Barring a major improvement in the committee's procedures, withdrawal from the U.N. review process would be fully justified.
June 16, 2008
LOST in the Arctic: The U.S. Need Not Ratify the Law of the Sea Treaty to Get a Seat at the Table
By Steven Groves
(WebMemo #1957)
Last month at the Arctic Ocean Conference (AOC) in Ilulissat, Greenland, high-level diplomats from the United States and the other four nations that border the Arctic region—Canada, Denmark, Norway, and Russia—met to discuss territorial claims regarding the Arctic Circle.
May 01, 2008
The U.S. Should Reject the U.N. "Responsibility to Protect" Doctrine
By Steven Groves
(Backgrounder #2130)
Advocates of "responsibility to protect" believe that the international community has an obligation to intervene, militarily if necessary, in another country to prevent acts of genocide and ethnic cleansing. To preserve its national sovereignty, the United States must maintain a monopoly on decisions to deploy U.S. military forces and to use diplomatic pressure, economic sanctions, and/or political coercion.
May 01, 2008
Executive Summary: The U.S. Should Reject the U.N. "Responsibility to Protect" Doctrine
By Steven Groves
(Executive Summary #2130)
Advocates of "responsibility to protect" believe that the international community has an obligation to intervene, militarily if necessary, in another country to prevent acts of genocide and ethnic cleansing. To preserve its national sovereignty, the United States must maintain a monopoly on decisions to deploy U.S. military forces and to use diplomatic pressure, economic sanctions, and/or political coercion.
April 22, 2008
Furthering the U.N.'s Leftist Agenda: The U.N. CERD Committee Report
By Steven Groves
(WebMemo #1899)
In 1994, the U.S. Senate ratified the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD). As a party to the CERD, the United States commits to prohibit racial discrimination in all its forms and is required to submit reports periodically to the CERD Committee outlining its compliance with the treaty.
February 08, 2008
Congress Should Ignore Budget Requests Relating to the Law of the Sea Treaty
By Steven Groves
(WebMemo #1804)
LOST is a flawed treaty that should not be ratified, much less funded prior to ratification.
January 26, 2008
Congress Should Withhold Funds from the U.N. Development Program
By Brett D. Schaefer and Steven Groves
(WebMemo #1783)
A new Senate report confirms the serious problems plaguing UN activities in North Korea.
January 15, 2008
Advancing Freedom in Burma
By Steven Groves
(Backgrounder #2099)
The United States should lead a broad international effort to isolate the Burmese junta economically, militarily, and diplomatically by persistently placing the matter of Burma before the U.N. Security Council and the U.N. General Assembly, encouraging the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to act against the junta, and raising the matter in bilateral U.S. relations with China.
January 08, 2008
Kenyan Election Signals Need to Overhaul U.S. Policy Toward Nascent Democracies
By Brett D. Schaefer and Steven Groves
(WebMemo #1769)
The U.S. must overhaul its policy of issuing official statements following elections and adopt new measures to bolster democracy in developing nations.
2007 Research
December 13, 2007
Heritage Foundation Statement to the United Nations Human Rights Council
By Steven Groves
(WebMemo #1744)
This speech was delivered in response to a recent report on human rights and counterterrorism.
November 28, 2007
Advancing Freedom in Russia
By Steven Groves
(Backgrounder #2088)
Individual freedom and human rights have declined sharply in Russia over the past decade and at an accelerated pace under President Vladimir Putin. The United States should attempt to stem this decline by promoting a diverse freedom agenda, strengthening public diplomacy, expanding U.S.–Russia student exchanges, and bolstering democracy-promotion efforts in Ukraine, Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan.
November 28, 2007
Executive Summary: Advancing Freedom in Russia
By Steven Groves
(Executive Summary #2088)
Individual freedom and human rights have declined sharply in Russia over the past decade and at an accelerated pace under President Vladimir Putin. The United States should attempt to stem this decline by promoting a diverse freedom agenda, strengthening public diplomacy, expanding U.S.–Russia student exchanges, and bolstering democracy-promotion efforts in Ukraine, Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan.
October 24, 2007
Why Reagan Would Still Reject the Law of the Sea Treaty
By Steven Groves
(WebMemo #1676)
Reagan's objections to LOST have been neither addressed nor resolved.
September 25, 2007
The Top Five Reasons Why Conservatives Should Oppose the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea
By Baker Spring, Steven Groves, and Brett D. Schaefer
(WebMemo #1638)
Twenty-five years after President Reagan rejected it, the convention remains a threat to U.S. interests.
September 24, 2007
Treatment of Detainees and Unlawful Combatants: Selected Writings on Guantanamo Bay
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D., Steven Groves, and Janice Smith
(Special Report #17)
The research presented in The Heritage Foundation’s Guantanamo Bay collection clearly indicates that Congress should not interfere with the U.S. military’s policy of detaining unlawful alien enemy combatants at Guantanamo Bay. The United States is engaged in an ongoing armed conflict against al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and therefore has no obligation—legal, moral, or otherwise—to release captured enemy soldiers so that they may return to the battlefield. Short-sighted legislation extending unprecedented rights to foreign terrorists and other enemy combatants undermines U.S. troops deployed in the field in Afghanistan and Iraq. These detainees should not be released until the cessation of hostilities in Afghanistan and elsewhere.
August 28, 2007
The United States Must Demand Accountability from U.N. Peacekeeping Operations
By Steven Groves
(Heritage Lecture #1041)
Although U.N. peacekeeping missions may, in certain limited circumstances, align with the national interests of the United States, it is premature to discuss whether U.S. taxpayer dollars should be used to pay "arrearages" allegedly owed to the U.N. The United States cannot be seen as the underwriters of sexual abuse in the world's most desperate, war-torn nations.
July 30, 2007
Advancing Freedom in Iraq
By Steven Groves
(Backgrounder #2056)
A secure and stable Iraq is in America’s national interest, and Iraq's best chance for long-term stability is to develop democratic institutions that protect the civil, political, and human rights of the Iraqi people. Congress should not interfere with ongoing military efforts to secure and stabilize Iraq or legislate restrictions on the use of U.S. military force.
July 13, 2007
Dispelling Misconceptions: Guantanamo Bay Detainee Procedures Exceed the Requirements of the U.S. Constitution, U.S. Law, and Customary International Law
By Steven Groves and Brian W. Walsh
(WebMemo #1556)
Contrary to the claims of the Bush Administration's critics, the detainees held at Guantanamo actually receive the most systematic and extensive procedural protections afforded to foreign enemy combatants in the history of armed conflict.
June 13, 2007
U.N. Peacekeeping Forces: A Force Multiplier for the U.S.?
By Steven Groves
(Testimony #9999)
It is premature to discuss whether and under what circumstances U.N. peacekeeping could serve as a "force multiplier" for U.S. armed forces or even whether peacekeepers could complement the vital national interests of the United States. Only after the U.N. Department of Peacekeeping Operations has been reformed in such a manner that it may perform its important duties at the highest level of professionalism should those matters be addressed.
June 07, 2007
U.N. Rapporteur Scheinin Issues Wrong Opinion on U.S. War on Terrorism
By Steven Groves
(WebMemo #1491)
Scheinin appears to have placed the agenda of the international human rights community over the right of the United States to defend itself against international terrorism.
May 24, 2007
The U.S. Deserves a Fair Report from the U.N. Human Rights Envoy
By Steven Groves
(WebMemo #1470)
Will yet another U.N. official ignore U.S. sovereignty, law, and traditions in favor of vague international norms?
May 04, 2007
Preventing Repressive Regimes from Using the U.N. to Advance Their Interests
By Brett D. Schaefer and Steven Groves
(WebMemo #1445)
The United States should take steps within and outside of the U.N. to prevent bad actors like Iran from exerting undue influence on international processes.
March 26, 2007
Advancing Freedom in Iran
By Steven Groves
(Backgrounder #2019)
Neither U.N. sanctions nor diplomacy will advance freedom and democracy in Iran, end Iran’s support for terrorist organizations, or stop Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. Because a peaceful democratic transformation of the Iranian government is in America’s national security interests, the United States should focus its funding and public diplomacy efforts on supporting a national referendum on Iran’s constitution.
February 06, 2007
Congress's Iraq Resolutions: Without Resolve or Constitutional Purpose
By Todd Gaziano, Steven Groves, and Brian Walsh
(WebMemo #1347)
The proposed Iraq resolutions are an abuse of Congress's authority and an unreasonable interference with the President's exclusive authority to make strategic military decisions during wartime.
January 22, 2007
The UNDP North Korea Scandal: How Congress and the Bush Administration Should Respond
By Nile Gardiner, Ph.D., Brett D. Schaefer, and Steven Groves
(WebMemo #1318)
The United States must demand an immediate, fully independent inquiry into this latest scandal.
January 16, 2007
The United States Must Act to End Abuses by U.N. Peacekeepers
By Nile Gardiner, Ph.D., and Steven Groves
(WebMemo #1314)
Congress and the Bush Administration must act to help ensure that those responsible are brought to justice and that future abuses are prevented.
2008 Commentary
May 22, 2008
Burma outside the U.N. umbrella
By Steven Groves
The body count continues to rise in Burma (or "Myanmar" if you accept the name used by the brutal military junta that rules the nation). An estimated 100,000 people were killed by a cyclone that hit May 2. Another million are at risk.
2007 Commentary
September 14, 2007
How the Surge Advances Freedom in Iraq
By Steven Groves
Even before Congress got an encouraging update on security in Iraq from Gen. David Petraeus, some senators and congressmen kept urging that the United States rush for the exits with a quick pullout of troops.
August 30, 2007
The United States Must Demand Accountability from U.N. Peacekeeping Operations
By Steven Groves
With southern Lebanon in the near past and Darfur looming ahead, the issues relating to the utility and proper role of U.N. peacekeeping operations are certainly ripe for debate.
