In this capacity, he also served as the secretary of the Norwegian Nobel Committee.

Subsequently, he was associated with the University of Oslo as an Adjunct Professor of International History.

Lundestad spent several years in the United States as a research fellow, at Harvard University, from 1978 to 1979 and again in 1983, and at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, D.C., between 1988 and 1989.

During this period the Nobel Institute became a significant institution for research on contemporary history, where Lundestad contributed in his capacity as expert on American history and the Cold War.

He was also a proponent for establishing the Nobel Peace Center, which opened in 2005.