I am postdoc at Human Rights Studies and the Department of History, working on a project funded by a Marie Sklodowska-Curie Fellowship. The project examines how and why the Scandinavian countries used socio-economic human rights in their diplomacy at the United Nations from 1970 to 2000.

A historian by training, my research interests lie within the fields of US foreign policy, human rights history, and transatlantic relations. In particular, my research has focused on the role of human rights in US foreign relations in the late Cold War. My book, "Reagan, Congress, and Human Rights: Contesting Morality in US Foreign Policy", is forthcoming with Cambridge University Press.

For more about my research, please see: www.rasmussoendergaard.com/research

Books (3)

• Søndergaard, R. S. (accepted/in press). Reagan, Congress, and Human Rights: Contesting Morality in US Foreign Policy. Cambridge University Press.
• Søndergaard, R. S. (2016). The Institutionalization of Human Rights: Congress, Reagan and US Foreign Policy. University of Southern Denmark. Dissertation.
• Søndergaard, R. S. (2016). To Skridt Frem Og Et Tilbage - USA Og Menneskerettighederne. Kongressen Forlag.

Articles (5)

• Søndergaard, R. S. (accepted/in press). The Committee for the Free World and the Defense of Democracy. Journal of Cold War Studies. MIT Press Journals.
• Søndergaard, R. S. (2018). The Resilience of Camelot: The Kennedy Myth in Danish Newspapers during the Cold War. American Studies in Scandinavia, 50, 69-88. Odense University Press.
• Søndergaard, R. S. (2016). Domestic Politics and U.S. Foreign Relations. A Roundtable. : The Domestic Politics of U.S. Human Rights Policy. Passport: The Newsletter of SHAFR, 46, 62-64.
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• Søndergaard, R. S. (2015). Bill Clinton’s ‘Democratic Enlargement’ and the Securitisation of Democracy Promotion. Diplomacy & Statecraft, 26, 534-551. Taylor & Francis.
• Søndergaard, R. S. (2012). Antiamerikanisme blandt danske intellektuelle i 1950'erne. 1066 Tidsskrift for historie, 42, 3-14. Historisk Institut.

Book chapters (2)

• Søndergaard, R. S. (2019). 'A Positive Track of Human Rights Policy': Elliott Abrams, the Human Rights Bureau and the Conceptualization of Democracy Promotion. In Pee, R. & Schmidli, W. M. (Eds.) Security, Conflict and Cooperation in the Contemporary World, The Reagan Administration, the Cold War and the Transition to Democracy Promotion (pp. 31-50). Palgrave Macmillan.
• Søndergaard, R. S. (2018). The Congressional Human Rights Caucus and the Plight of the Refuseniks. In Johns, A. L. & Lerner, M. B. (Eds.) Studies In Conflict, Diplomacy, and Peace, The Cold War at Home and Abroad: Domestic Politics and U.S. Foreign Policy since 1945 (pp. 224-246). University Press of Kentucky.

Reviews (4)

• Søndergaard, R. S. (2019). Democracy Promotion, National Security and Strategy: Foreign Policy under the Reagan Administration by Robert Pee, London: Routledge, 2015. 219 pp. $145.00. Journal of Cold War Studies, 21, 199-201. MIT Press Journals.
• Søndergaard, R. S. (2019). Hal Brands, Making the Unipolar Moment: U.S. Foreign Policy and the Rise of the Post-Cold War Order. Journal of Contemporary History, 54, 236-238.
• Søndergaard, R. S. (2017). H-Diplo Roundtable XIX ,16 on Why Wilson Matters: The Origins of Liberal Internationalism and Its Crisis Today. H-Diplo, XIX.
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• Søndergaard, R. S. (2014). Er Obamas USA exceptionel?. Tidsskriftet Politik, 17, 66-67. Jurist- og Økonomforbundets Forlag.