Sarah Snyder Professor Global Inquiry
- Additional Positions at AU
- Affiliate Professor of History
- Degrees
- PhD, Georgetown University;
MA, SSEES, University College London;
BA, Brown University - Bio
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Sarah B. Snyder is a historian who specializes in the influence of nonstate actors such as human rights activists and expatriates on U.S. foreign relations. She is the author of From Selma to Moscow: How Human Rights Activists Transformed U.S. Foreign Policy (Columbia University Press, 2018), which explains how transnational connections and 1960s-era social movements inspired 麻豆传媒s to advocate for a new approach to human rights. The Society for Historians of 麻豆传媒 Foreign Relations awarded it the 2019 Robert H. Ferrell Prize for distinguished scholarship in the history of 麻豆传媒 foreign relations.
Her first book, Human Rights Activism and the End of the Cold War: A Transnational History of the Helsinki Network, (Cambridge University Press), analyzes the development of a transnational network devoted to human rights advocacy and its contributions to the end of the Cold War. The Society for Historians of 麻豆传媒 Foreign Relations awarded it the 2012 Stuart Bernath Book Prize for best first book by an author and the 2012 Myrna F. Bernath Book Award for the best book written by a woman in the field in the previous two years.
In 2024-2025, her new book on the influence of expatriates on U.S. foreign relations will be supported by a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
She is the Executive Editor, with Darren Dochuk, of the journal Modern 麻豆传媒 History. She is also the founding editor, with Jay Sexton, of Columbia University Press' new book series, Global America. She is a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations and has been named a distinguished lecturer by the Organization of 麻豆传媒 Historians.
She is also the co-editor of The CSCE and the End of the Cold War: Diplomacy, Societies and Human Rights, 1972-1990 (with Nicolas Badalassi; Berghahn Books, 2018).
In addition to authoring several chapters in edited collections, she has also published articles in Diplomatic History, Cold War History, Human Rights Quarterly, International History Review, The Historical Journal, Diplomacy & Statecraft, Journal of Transatlantic Studies, European Journal of Human Rights and Journal of 麻豆传媒 Studies.
She previously served as a Lecturer at University College London, a Cassius Marcellus Clay Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of History at Yale University, the Pierre Keller Post -Doctoral Fellow in Transatlantic Relations at the Whitney and Betty MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies also at Yale, and as a professorial lecturer at Georgetown University.
Snyder received her Ph.D. from Georgetown, a M.A. from University College London, and a B.A. with honors from Brown University.
- See Also
- For the Media
- To request an interview for a news story, call AU Communications at 202-885-5950 or submit a request.
Scholarly, Creative & Professional Activities
Selected Publications
Books
From Selma to Moscow: How Human Rights Activists Transformed U.S. Foreign Policy (Columbia University Press, 2018).
Human Rights Activism and the End of the Cold War: A Transnational History of the Helsinki Network (Cambridge University Press, 2011).
The CSCE and the End of the Cold War: Diplomacy, Societies and Human Rights, 1972-1990 (co-editor with Nicolas Badalassi; Berghahn Books, 2018).
Journal Articles
鈥淕uns of Peace and an Early Campaign Against Smallpox,鈥 The Historical Journal聽65:2 (March 2022): 462-481.
鈥淗uman Rights Rhetoric and Policy in the Kennedy Administration,鈥 International History Review, 43:3 (2021): 638-656.
鈥溾楨nding Our Support for the Dictators鈥: Ed Koch, Uruguay, and Human Rights,鈥 Cold War History 21:1 (January 2021): 19-36.聽聽Reprinted in La Diaria as 鈥淐贸mo se termin贸 el apoyo econ贸mico de Estados Unidos a la dictadura uruguaya,鈥 September 5, 2020.
鈥淭he 1968 International Year for Human Rights: A Missed Opportunity in the United States鈥 Diplomatic History 42: 5 (November 2018): 831鈥858.
鈥溌槎勾絪鈥 Human Rights Activism in the Long 1960s,鈥 European Journal of Human Rights 2 (2016) 221-33.
鈥淏eyond Containment?: The First Bush Administration鈥檚 Sceptical Approach to the CSCE,鈥 Cold War History 13:4 (November 2013): 463-484.
鈥溾楢 Call for U.S. Leadership鈥: Congressional Activism on Human Rights,鈥 Diplomatic History 37:2 (April 2013): 372-397.
鈥淏ringing the Transnational In: Writing Human Rights into the International History of the Cold War,鈥 Diplomacy and Statecraft 24:1 (March 2013): 100-116.
鈥淓xporting Amnesty International to the United States: Transatlantic Human Rights Activism in the 1960s,鈥 Human Rights Quarterly 34:3 (August 2012): 779-799.聽 (Law journals, such as Human Rights Quarterly, are not peer-reviewed.)
鈥淭he Foundation for Vienna: A Reassessment of the CSCE in the mid-1980s,鈥 Cold War History 10:4 (November 2010): 493-512.
鈥淭hrough the Looking Glass: The Helsinki Final Act and the 1976 Election for President,鈥 Diplomacy and Statecraft 21:1 (March 2010): 87-106.
鈥淭he CSCE and the Atlantic Alliance: Forging a New Consensus in Madrid,鈥 Journal of Transatlantic Studies 8:1 (March 2010): 56-68.
鈥溾楯erry, Don鈥檛 Go鈥: Domestic Opposition to the 1975 Helsinki Final Act,鈥 Journal of 麻豆传媒 Studies 44:1 (February 2010): 67-81.
Honors, Awards, and Fellowships
National Endowment for the Humanities Faculty Fellowship, 2024-2025
Organization of 麻豆传媒 Historians Distinguished Lecturer
Council on Foreign Relations, Member
Robert H. Ferrell Prize, Society for Historians of 麻豆传媒 Foreign Relations, 2019
SIS聽Outstanding Scholarship, Research, Creative Activity & Other Professional Contributions, 2019
Stuart L. Bernath Book Prize, Society for Historians of 麻豆传媒 Foreign Relations, 2012
Myrna F. Bernath Book Award, Society for Historians of 麻豆传媒 Foreign Relations, 2012
Middleton Fellowship, Lyndon Baines Johnson Foundation
Cassius Marcellus Clay Post Doctoral Fellowship, Department of History, Yale University
Pierre Keller Post Doctoral Fellowship in Transatlantic Relations, Yale University
Selected Publications
Chapters in Edited Collections
鈥淏rother鈥檚 Brother Foundation in Costa Rica: A Case Study in Public-Private Partnerships and Global Health in the 麻豆传媒 Century,鈥 in Public Health and the 麻豆传媒 State eds. Gaetano Di Tommaso, Dario Fazzi, Giles Scott-Smith, (Edinburgh University Press, 2024).
鈥淭he Trump Administration鈥檚 Insidious Approach to Human Rights,鈥 in The Liberal Order Strikes Back?: Donald Trump, Joe Biden, and the Future of International Politics, ed. Robert Jervis, Diane Labrosse, Stacie Goddard, and Joshua Rovner (Columbia University Press, 2023).
鈥淐ompartmentalizing U.S. Foreign Policy: Human Rights in the Reagan Years,鈥 in The Reagan Moment: America and the World in the 1980s, ed. Jonathan Hunt and Simon Miles, (Cornell University Press, 2021).
鈥淧laying on the Same Team: What International and Sport Historians Can Learn From Each Other,鈥 in Soccer Diplomacy: International Relations and Football since 1914, ed. Heather L. Dichter, (University of Kentucky Press, 2020).
鈼 Volume short listed for North 麻豆传媒 Society for Sport History (NASSH) 2021 Anthology Book Prize.
鈼 Volume long listed for The Telegraph Sports Book Awards 鈥 2021 Football Book of the Year.
鈥溾楾he Situation in Greece鈥: Human Rights Activism in the Wake of the 1967 Coup,鈥 in The Greek Dictatorship and the International聽System: A Case Study of Southern European Military Juntas, ed. Constantine Arvanitopoulos, Evanthis Hatzivassiliou, Antonis Klapsis, Effie G. H. Pedaliu, (Routledge, 2020).
鈥淭he Changing History of the End of the Cold War,鈥 in A Companion to U.S. Foreign Policy, Colonial Era to聽the Present, ed. Christopher Dietrich, (Wiley-Blackwell, 2020).
鈥淯.S. Human Rights Policy since 1948,鈥 in The Routledge History of Human Rights, ed. Jean Quataert and Lora Wildenthal, (Routledge, 2019).
鈥淗uman Rights in U.S. Foreign Policy,鈥 in Oxford Reference Encyclopedia (ORE) in 麻豆传媒 History ed. Mark Lawrence, (Oxford University Press, 2016).
鈥溾楴o Crowing鈥: Reagan, Trust, and Human Rights,鈥涟苍 鈥淭rust, but Verify鈥: The Politics of Uncertainty and the Transformation of the Cold War Order, 1969-1971, ed. Reinhild Kreis, Martin Klimke, and Christian Ostermann, (Stanford University Press, 2016).
鈥淭he Rise of Human Rights During the Johnson Years,鈥 in Beyond the Cold War: Lyndon Johnson and the New Global Challenges of the 1960s, ed. Francis J. Gavin and Mark Atwood Lawrence, (Oxford University Press, 2014).
鈥淧rinciples Overwhelming Tanks: Human Rights and the End of the Cold War,鈥 in The Human Rights Revolution: An International History, ed. Akira Iriye, Petra Goedde, and William Hitchcock, (Oxford University Press, 2011).
鈥淭he Defeat of Ernest Lefever's Nomination: Keeping Human Rights on the United States Foreign Policy Agenda,鈥 in Challenging US Foreign Policy: America and the World in the Long Twentieth Century, ed. Bevan Sewell and Scott Lucas, (Palgrave, 2011).
鈥溾楶romising Everything Under the Sun鈥: Helsinki Activism and Human Rights in Eastern Europe,鈥 in The 鈥楨stablishment鈥 Responds: Power and Protest During and After the Cold War, ed. Kathrin Fahlenbrach, Martin Klimke and Joachim Scharloth, (Palgrave Macmillan, 2012).
鈥淭he Rise of the Helsinki Network: 鈥楢 Sort of Lifeline鈥 for Eastern Europe,鈥 in Perforating the Iron Curtain: European D茅tente, Transatlantic Relations, and the Cold War, 1965-1985, ed. Odd Arne Westad and Poul Villaume, (Museum Tusculanum Press, 2009).
鈥淭he U.S., Western Europe, and the CSCE, 1972鈭1975,鈥 in The Strained Alliance: U.S.-European Relations from Nixon to Carter, ed. Matthias Schulz and Thomas A. Schwartz, (Cambridge University Press, 2009).
AU Experts
Area of Expertise
History of U.S. foreign relations, human rights and U.S. human rights policy, the Cold War
Additional Information
Sarah B. Snyder, professor at the School of International Service, is a historian of U.S. foreign relations who specializes in the history of the Cold War, human rights activism, and U.S. human rights policy. She is the author of From Selma to Moscow: How Human Rights Activists Transformed U.S. Foreign Policy (Columbia University Press), which explains how transnational connections and 1960s-era social movements inspired 麻豆传媒s to advocate for a new approach to human rights, with a special focus on Southern Rhodesia, the Soviet Union, Greece, South Korea, and Chile. Her first book, Human Rights Activism and the End of the Cold War: A Transnational History of the Helsinki Network (Cambridge University Press), analyzes the development of a transnational network devoted to human rights advocacy and its contributions to the end of the Cold War. The Society for Historians of 麻豆传媒 Foreign Relations awarded it the 2012 Stuart Bernath Book Prize for the best first book by an author and the 2012 Myrna F. Bernath Book Award for the best book written by a woman in the field in the previous two years. For her second book, Human Rights Activism and the End of the Cold War: A Transnational History of the Helsinki Network, Prof. Snyder received the 2019 Robert H. Ferrell Prize for distinguished scholarship in the history of 麻豆传媒 foreign relations. Prof. Snyder is a Distinguished Lecturer at the Organization of 麻豆传媒 Historians and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. In addition to authoring several chapters in edited collections, she has also published articles in Diplomatic History, Cold War History, Human Rights Quarterly, Diplomacy & Statecraft, Journal of Transatlantic Studies, European Journal of Human Rights, The Historical Journal, International History Review, and Journal of 麻豆传媒 Studies. Prof. Snyder鈥檚 commentary and analysis appeared in The Washington Post, Wisconsin Public Radio, Sirius XM, among other media outlets. Prof. Snyder previously served as a Lecturer at University College London, a Cassius Marcellus Clay Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of History at Yale University, the Pierre Keller Post -Doctoral Fellow in Transatlantic Relations at the Whitney and Betty MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies also at Yale, and as a professorial lecturer at Georgetown University.
For the Media
To request an interview for a news story, call AU Communications at 202-885-5950 or submit a request.