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  1. Home
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  3. Human Rights Activism and the End of the Cold War
  • Cited by 89
Publisher:
Cambridge University Press
Online publication date:
June 2011
Print publication year:
2011
Online ISBN:
9780511851964
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511851964
Subjects:
History after 1945 (General) , Diplomatic and International History, Regional and World History: General Interest, Human Rights, History
Series:
Human Rights in History
Information

Book description

Two of the most pressing questions facing international historians today are how and why the Cold War ended. Human Rights Activism and the End of the Cold War explores how, in the aftermath of the signing of the Helsinki Final Act in 1975, a transnational network of activists committed to human rights in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe made the topic a central element in East-West diplomacy. As a result, human rights eventually became an important element of Cold War diplomacy and a central component of détente. Sarah B. Snyder demonstrates how this network influenced both Western and Eastern governments to pursue policies that fostered the rise of organized dissent in Eastern Europe, freedom of movement for East Germans and improved human rights practices in the Soviet Union - all factors in the end of the Cold War.

Awards

Winner of the 2012 Stuart L. Bernath Book Prize, Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations

Winner of the 2012 Myrna Bernath Book Award, Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations

Reviews

‘… innovative conceptually and methodologically and makes an extremely important contribution to the study of international affairs during the 1970s and 1980s, including the ending of the Cold War.’

Akira Iriye - Harvard University

‘An important and engaging contribution to the growing literature on ‘the Helsinki effect’ - how non-binding agreements may in effect punch above their weight by effecting powerful changes to the contours of international politics.’

Elizabeth Borgwardt - author of A New Deal for the World: America’s Vision for Human Rights, 1941–1946

'… Sarah Snyder’s well-researched study demonstrates the role played by the Helsinki Final Act in bringing democracy and respect for human rights to Eastern Europe.'

Source: International Affairs

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