Among intellectuals of a more oppositional cast, the idea that reference to human rights has served as a threadbare cloak for both Realpolitik and depoliticization is uncontroversial. Ever since its consolidation in the 1970s as a crucial ingredient in the legitimation of U.S. superpower, the notion that international politics should be subordinated to human rights has shadowed military operations whose claim to act in the name of humanity is easily debunked.¹ The invasions and occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan, together with the deployment of a bewildering arsenal of supra- and infraterritorial violence, from renditions to drone strikes, have done much to eliminate the moral halo that still accompanied the notion of humanitarian intervention well into the 1990s.