Julie A. Mertus is a professor of human rights at American University and co-director of the Ethics, Peace and Global Affairs Program. She has been a Senior Fellow at the U.S. Institute of Peace, a fellow in human rights at Harvard Law School, a MacArthur Foundation Fellow, a Fulbright Fellow and a Counsel to Human Rights Watch. She is the author of five books, including Kosovo: How Myths and Truths Started a War.

It has become routine for the US government to invoke human rights to justify its foreign policy decisions and military ventures. But this human rights talk has not been supported by a human rights walk. Policy makers consistently apply a double standard for human rights norms: one the rest of the world must observe, but which the US can safely ignore.

Based on extensive interviews with leading foreign policy makers, military officials, and human rights advocates, Mertus tells the story of how America's attempts to promote human rights abroad have, paradoxically, undermined those rights in other countries. The second edition brings the story up-to-date, including new sections on the second half of the Bush administration and the Iraq War, and updates on Afghanistan.

The first edition of Bait and Switch won the American Political Science Association's 2005 Best Book on Human Rights.