Reagan, Congress, and Human Rights: Contesting Morality in US Foreign Policy

Rasmus Sinding Sondergaard

ISBN 10: 110849563X / ISBN 13: 9781108495639

Published by Cambridge University Press, 2020

About this Item

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Seller Inventory # B9781108495639

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Reagan, Congress, and Human Rights: Contesting Morality in US Foreign Policy
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication Date: 2020
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 110849563X
• ISBN 13: 9781108495639
• Binding: Hardback
• Condition: New
• Weight: 590 grams

About this title

Synopsis

This book traces the role of human rights concerns in US foreign policy during the 1980s, focusing on the struggle among the Reagan administration and members of Congress. It demonstrates how congressional pressure led the administration to reconsider its approach to human rights and craft a conservative human rights policy centered on democracy promotion and anti-communism - a decision which would have profound implications for American attention to human rights. Based on extensive archival research and interviews, Rasmus Sinding Søndergaard combines a comprehensive overview of human rights in American foreign relations with in-depth case studies of how human rights shaped US foreign policy toward Soviet Jewry, South African apartheid, and Nicaragua. Tracing the motivations behind human rights activism, this book demonstrates how liberals, moderates, and conservatives selectively invoked human rights to further their agendas, ultimately contributing to the establishment of human rights as a core moral language in US foreign policy.

About the Author

Rasmus Sinding Søndergaard is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow in the Department of History, Lunds Universitet, Sweden. He is a recipient of the Danish Ministry of Higher Education and Science's Elite Research Ph.D. Prize and fellowships from the Carlsberg Foundation, the American-Scandinavian Foundation, and the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations.