About this product

Product Identifiers

PublisherCambridge University Press

ISBN-10110849563X

ISBN-139781108495639

eBay Product ID (ePID)24038903065

Product Key Features

Number of Pages324 Pages

LanguageEnglish

Publication NameReagan, Congress, and Human Rights : Contesting Morality in Us Foreign Policy

Publication Year2020

SubjectGeneral, United States / General

TypeTextbook

Subject AreaPolitical Science, History

AuthorRasmus Sinding Søndergaard

SeriesHuman Rights in History Ser.

FormatHardcover

Dimensions

Item Height0.8 in

Item Weight20.8 Oz

Item Length9.3 in

Item Width6.2 in

Additional Product Features

Intended AudienceScholarly & Professional

LCCN2019-042619

ReviewsThe persistence in contemporary debates of many of the political patterns highlighted by Søndergaard further underscores the importance of this book, which should be required reading for anyone interested in the domestic politics of human rights or legislative-executive relations on foreign policy. Jordan Tama, Diplomatica, '... an excellent study that challenges many previous understandings of Reagan's foreign policy and the role of Congress in the 1980s. As Søndergaard demonstrates, while the administration's use of human rights was selective and only genuinely pursued when connected to its anti-communist efforts, it nonetheless 'helped secure human rights as the key moral language in American foreign relations'.' Kristina Spohr, Diplomatic History, 'The book will make a lasting contribution to our understanding of the foreign policy continuity across the final decades of the Cold War. Søndergaard has written a sequel to Barbara Keys' Reclaiming American Virtue: The Human Rights Revolution of the 1970s (2014). Like her, he has obliged us to rethink easy caricatures of US power.' Timothy J. Lynch, Journal of Contemporary History, 'In explaining how idealists in Congress forced the Reagan administration to embrace and recast human rights, Søndergaard reveals how profoundly the trajectory of U.S. human rights policy was determined by contestation between the executive and the legislature. This richly researched book illuminates a poorly understood decade in the development of international human rights and recovers the role of overlooked actors, both in Congress and outside government.' Barbara Keys, Durham University

Dewey Edition23

IllustratedYes

Dewey Decimal172/.4097309048

Table Of ContentIntroduction; 1. After the breakthrough: human rights in American foreign relations in the 1980s; 2. The Reagan turnaround on human rights; 3. The Congressional human rights caucus and the limits of bipartisanship; 4. The right to leave: Soviet Jewish emigration; 5. 'A universal human rights issue': South African apartheid; 6. Two tales of human rights: US policy toward Nicaragua; Conclusion.

SynopsisThis 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., 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 S ndergaard 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., 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 explores how executive-legislative relations shaped attention to human rights in US foreign policy and how the issue of human rights, in turn, impacted governmental relations.

LC Classification NumberJC599.U5S596 2020