Jack Snyder
Robert and Renée Belfer Professor of International Relations
Personal Details
Jack L. Snyder is the Robert and Renee Belfer Professor of International Relations in the political science department and the Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies at Columbia University.
His books include Electing to Fight: Why Emerging Democracies Go to War (MIT Press, 2005), co-authored with Edward D. Mansfield; From Voting to Violence: Democratization and Nationalist Conflict (Norton Books, 2000); Myths of Empire: Domestic Politics and International Ambition. (Cornell University Press, 1991); The Ideology of the Offensive: Military Decision Making and the Disasters of 1914 (Cornell 1984); and Civil Wars, Insecurity, and Intervention, co-editor with Barbara Walter (Columbia University Press, 1999).
His articles on such topics as democratization and war ("Prone to Violence: The Paradox of the Democratic Peace," The National Interest, winter 2005/2006), imperial overstretch, war crimes tribunals versus amnesties as strategies for preventing atrocities, international relations theory after September 11, and anarchy and culture have appeared in The American Political Science Review, Daedalus, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, International Organization, International Security, The Journal of Democracy, and World Politics. His commentaries on current public issues such as the promotion of democracy abroad have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The International Herald Tribune, and on National Public Radio.
A Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Snyder received a B.A. in government from Harvard University in 1973, the Certificate of Columbia's Russian Institute in 1978, and a Ph.D. in political science from Columbia in 1981.
Education
- PhD in Political Science, Columbia University
- BA in Government, Harvard University
In The Media
Jack Snyder spoke about how to respond to human rights abuses in a way that actually has impact.
Jack Snyder and co-author Hadas Aron published a chapter laying out a theory of the international behavior of illiberal regimes, demonstrating the points of similarity and connection between illiberals in power and their ultimate lack of a strong basis for mutual cooperation.
Jack Snyder has published his research presenting that mainstream approaches, including realism and liberalism, shed more light on the central mechanisms that drive international politics than theories that put race in the central position do.
Jack Snyder joins the inaugural International Studies Review podcast for a wide-ranging conversation about his most recent book, Human Rights for Pragmatists.
Rajan Menon of the Saltzman Institute writes about "stopping the fighting and building the peace"; the package includes responses from several authors including Menon's colleague Jack Snyder.