{{short description|American political scientist (born 1951)}}
{{Use American English|date=March 2026}}
{{Infobox academic
| name = Jack Snyder
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| birth_name = Jack Lewis Snyder
| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1951|02|06}}
| birth_place = [[Allentown, Pennsylvania]], U.S.<ref name="Contemp_Authors">{{cite book|title=Contemporary Authors, New Revision Series|publisher=Encyclopedia.com|chapter-url=http://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/educational-magazines/snyder-jack-1951|access-date=23 December 2017|chapter=Snyder, Jack 1951–}}</ref>
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| awards = [[Karl Deutsch Award (international relations)|Karl Deutsch Award]] (1991)<!--notable national level awards only-->
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| education = [[Harvard University]] ([[Bachelor of Arts|BA]])<br />[[Columbia University]] ([[PhD]])
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| school_tradition = [[Neoclassical realism]]<ref name="Taliaferro_2000">{{cite journal|last1=Taliaferro|first1=Jeffrey W.|title=Security Seeking under Anarchy: Defensive Realism Revisited|journal=International Security|volume=25|issue=3|pages=128–161|doi=10.1162/016228800560543|year=2001|s2cid=57568196}}</ref>
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| discipline = International relations
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| workplaces = [[Columbia University]]
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| notable_ideas = [[Offensive realism|Offensive]] and [[defensive realism]]
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'''Jack Lewis Snyder''' (born February 6, 1951) is an American [[political scientist]] who is the [[Robert A. Belfer|Robert]] and Renée Belfer Professor of International Relations at [[Columbia University]], specializing in theories of international relations.

Snyder's research centers around the relationship between violence and government. He is known for introducing the distinction between [[Offensive realism|offensive]] and [[defensive realism|defensive]] [[Realism (international relations)|realism]] into the international relations literature in his 1991 book ''Myths of Empire''.<ref name="Taliaferro_2000" /><ref name="Rose_1998">{{cite journal|last1=Rose|first1=Gideon|title=Neoclassical Realism and Theories of International Relations|journal=World Politics|date=October 1998|volume=51|issue=1|pages=44–72|doi=10.1017/S0043887100007814|s2cid=154361851}}</ref>

==Early life and education==
Snyder was born in February 1951 in [[Allentown, Pennsylvania]]. He attended [[Harvard University]] as an undergraduate, receiving a [[Bachelor of Arts|B.A.]] in government in 1973. From 1973 to 1975 he was on the research staff of the [[Tuesday Group|Wednesday Group]] (a grouping of [[Rockefeller Republican|liberal Republicans]]), and later the foreign policy staff of Illinois senator [[Charles H. Percy]].<ref name="Belfer_Bio" />

He pursued graduate studies at Columbia University, first receiving a certificate from the [[Harriman Institute]] (then known as the Russian Institute) in 1978 before receiving his PhD in international relations in 1981.<ref name="Belfer_Bio">{{cite web|title=Jack Snyder|url=https://www.belfercenter.org/person/jack-snyder|website=[[Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs]]|access-date=23 December 2017}}</ref> He was a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard's [[Weatherhead Center for International Affairs|Center for International Affairs]] before returning to teach at Columbia.

==Academic career==

It was in his ''Myths of Empire'' that Snyder first drew a distinction between [[Offensive realism|offensive]] and [[defensive realism]].

Much of Snyder's work presents challenges to the fundamental assumption of [[democratic peace theory]]: that democracies do not go to war with each other and that, therefore, democratization leads to a reduction in interstate conflict. In ''From Voting to Violence'' he argues that, rather than encourage peace, poorly managed democratization processes have often produced upsurges in nationalism and ethnic violence, as threatened political elites seek to thwart moves towards popular rule. He cites as examples [[Weimar Germany]] and the internationally sponsored [[Burundian presidential election, 1993|1993 presidential elections]] in [[Burundi]] (which led to the outbreak of a [[Burundian Civil War|civil war]] later that year).<ref name="Ikenberry_Rev">{{cite news|last1=Ikenberry|first1=G. John|authorlink1=John Ikenberry|title=From Voting to Violence: Democratization and Nationalist Conflict|url=https://www.foreignaffairs.com/reviews/capsule-review/2000-05-01/voting-violence-democratization-and-nationalist-conflict|work=[[Foreign Affairs (magazine)|Foreign Affairs]]|issue=May/June 2000|publisher=[[Council on Foreign Relations]]}}</ref>

In ''Electing to Fight'', Snyder and Mansfield argue emerging democracies with weak political institutions are more rather than less likely to go war, as their leaders often seek to rally support by invoking external threats and employing belligerent, nationalist rhetoric. Mansfield and Snyder demonstrate this pattern in a number of cases, ranging from [[French Revolutionary Wars|revolutionary France]] to [[Russia under Putin|contemporary Russia under Putin]].<ref>{{cite journal|last1=McFaul|first1=Michael|authorlink1=Michael McFaul|title=Books In Review: Electing to Fight: Why Emerging Democracies Go to War|journal=Journal of Democracy|date=April 2007|volume=18|issue=2|pages=160–166|doi=10.1353/jod.2007.0029|s2cid=153767044}}</ref>  Snyder suggests that the way to avoid nationalist conflict is to promote the growth of robust civic institutions and a solid middle class prior to democratization.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Walker|first1=Martin|title=Review: From Voting to Violence|journal=Wilson Quarterly|date=Autumn 2000|volume=24|issue=4|pages=134–136}}</ref>

His students at Columbia included [[Colin Kahl]], former [[Under Secretary of Defense for Policy|U.S. Under Secretary of Defense for Policy]].

==Other activities==

Snyder was Director of Columbia's [[Institute of War and Peace Studies]] from 1994 to 1997<ref>{{cite web| url = https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/educational-magazines/snyder-jack-1951| title = Snyder, Jack 1951– {{!}} Encyclopedia.com}}</ref> and chair of Columbia's political science department from 1997 to 2000.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Snyder, Jack 1951– {{!}} Encyclopedia.com |url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/educational-magazines/snyder-jack-1951 |access-date=2022-05-29 |website=www.encyclopedia.com}}</ref>

==Selected bibliography==
===Books===
*{{cite book|last1=Snyder|first1=Jack|title=Power and Progress: International Politics in Transition|date=2012|publisher=[[Routledge]]|location=London|isbn=9781136467684}}
*{{cite book|last1=Snyder|first1=Jack|last2=Mansfield|first2=Edward|title=Electing to Fight: Why Emerging Democracies Go to War|date=2005|publisher=[[MIT Press]]|location=Cambridge|isbn=9780262134491|url=https://archive.org/details/electingtofightw0000mans}}
*{{cite book|last1=Snyder|first1=Jack|title=From Voting to Violence: Democratization and Nationalist Conflict|date=2000|publisher=[[W.W. Norton]]|location=New York|isbn=9780393974812|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780393048810}}
*{{cite book|last1=Snyder|first1=Jack|title=Myths of Empire: Domestic Politics and International Ambition|date=1991|publisher=[[Cornell University Press]]|location=Ithaca|isbn=9780801497643}}
*{{cite book|last1=Snyder|first1=Jack|title=The Ideology of the Offensive: Military Decision Making and the Disasters of 1914|date=1984|publisher=[[Cornell University Press]]|location=Ithaca|isbn=9780801482441|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/ideologyofoffens0000snyd}}

====Edited volumes====
*{{cite book|editor1-last=Snyder|editor1-first=Jack|editor2-last=Vinjamuri|editor2-first=Leslie|editor3-last=Hopgood|editor3-first=Stephen|title=Human Rights Futures|date=2017|publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]]|location=Cambridge, UK|isbn=9781107193352}}
*{{cite book|editor1-last=Snyder|editor1-first=Jack|editor2-last=Mingst|editor2-first=Karen|title=Essential Readings in World Politics|date=2016|publisher=[[W.W. Norton]]|location=New York|isbn=9780393283662|edition=6th}}
*{{cite book|editor1-last=Snyder|editor1-first=Jack|editor2-last=Cooley|editor2-first=Alexander|title=Ranking the World: Grading States as a Tool of Global Governance|date=2015|publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]]}}
*{{cite book|editor1-last=Snyder|editor1-first=Jack|title=Religion and International Relations Theory|date=2011|publisher=[[Columbia University Press]]|location=New York|isbn=9780231153386}}
*{{cite book|editor1-last=Snyder|editor1-first=Jack|editor2-last=Walter|editor2-first=Barbara|title=Civil Wars, Insecurity, and Intervention|date=1999|publisher=[[Columbia University]]|location=New York|isbn=9780231116275}}
*{{cite book|editor1-last=Snyder|editor1-first=Jack|editor2-last=Rubin|editor2-first=Barnett|title=Post-Soviet Political Order: Conflict and State-Building|date=1998|publisher=[[Routledge]]|location=London|isbn=9780415170680}}
*{{cite book|editor1-last=Snyder|editor1-first=Jack|editor2-last=Jervis|editor2-first=Robert|editor2-link=Robert Jervis|title=Coping with Complexity in the International System|date=1993|publisher=Westview|location=Boulder, Colorado|isbn=9780813386072}}
*{{cite book|editor1-last=Snyder|editor1-first=Jack|editor2-last=Jervis|editor2-first=Robert|editor2-link=Robert Jervis|title=Dominoes and Bandwagons: Strategic Beliefs and Great Power Competition in the Eurasian Rimland|date=1991|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|location=New York|isbn=9780195062465|url=https://archive.org/details/dominoesbandwago00robe}}

===Selected journal articles and chapters===
*{{cite journal |last2=Mansfield |first2=Edward |last1=Snyder |first1=Jack |date= July 2007 |title=The Sequencing "Fallacy" |journal=Journal of Democracy |volume=18 |issue=3 |pages=5–10 |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/218813/summary|doi=10.1353/jod.2007.0047|s2cid=153352477 |url-access=subscription }}
*{{cite journal|last1=Snyder|first1=Jack|last2=Vinjamuri|first2=Leslie|title=Trials and Errors: Principle and Pragmatism in Strategies of International Justice|journal=[[International Security]]|date=Winter 2003–04|volume=28|issue=3|pages=5–44|doi=10.1162/016228803773100066 |s2cid=57564808}}
*{{cite journal |last2=Mansfield |first2=Edward |last1=Snyder |first1=Jack |date=Spring 2002 |title=Democratic Transitions, Institutional Strength, and War |journal=[[International Organization]] |volume=56 |issue=2 |pages=297–337 |url=http://www2.kobe-u.ac.jp/~tago/pdf/Mansfield%26SnyderIO2002.pdf |doi=10.1162/002081802320005496 |s2cid=55323505 |archive-date=2017-08-09 |access-date=2017-12-24 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170809002831/http://www2.kobe-u.ac.jp/~tago/pdf/Mansfield%26SnyderIO2002.pdf |url-status=dead }}
*{{cite journal|last1=Snyder|first1=Jack|last2=Ballentine|first2=Karen|title=Nationalism and the Marketplace of Ideas|journal=[[International Security]]|date=Fall 1996|volume=21|issue=2|pages=5–40|doi=10.1162/isec.21.2.5 |s2cid=57559503}}
*{{cite journal|last1=Snyder|first1=Jack|last2=Mansfield|first2=Edward|title=Democratization and the Danger of War|journal=[[International Security]]|date=Summer 1995|volume=20|issue=1|pages=5–38|doi=10.2307/2539213|url=http://www.columbia.edu/itc/sipa/S6800/courseworks/foreign_mansfield.pdf|jstor=2539213|s2cid=201794304}}
*{{cite journal|last1=Snyder|first1=Jack|title=Nationalism and the crisis of the post‐Soviet state|journal=Survival: Global Politics and Strategy|date=1993|volume=35|issue=1|pages=5–26|doi=10.1080/00396339308442671}}
*{{cite journal|last1=Snyder|first1=Jack|last2=Christensen|first2=Thomas J.|title=Chain gangs and passed bucks: predicting alliance patterns in multipolarity|journal=[[International Organization]]|date=Spring 1990|volume=44|issue=2|pages=137–168|doi=10.1017/S0020818300035232|s2cid=18700052 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/international-organization/article/chain-gangs-and-passed-bucks-predicting-alliance-patterns-in-multipolarity/F14C4DDDF83A484B673A55E1D925CDAA|url-access=subscription}}
*{{cite journal|last1=Snyder|first1=Jack|title=Averting Anarchy in the New Europe|journal=[[International Security]]|date=Spring 1990|volume=14|issue=4|pages=5–41|doi=10.2307/2538749|jstor=2538749}}
*{{cite web|last1=Snyder|first1=Jack|title=The Soviet Strategic Culture. Implications for Limited Nuclear Operations|url=http://apps.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a046124.pdf|publisher=[[RAND Corporation]]|format=Interim report, PDF|date=September 1977}}{{Dead link|date=July 2025 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}

===Other works===
*{{cite news|last1=Snyder|first1=Jack|first2=Leslie|last2=Vinjamuri|date= May 12, 2014|title=To Prevent Atrocities, Count on Politics First, Law Later|url=https://www.opendemocracy.net/openglobalrights/jack-snyder-leslie-vinjamuri/to-prevent-atrocities-count-on-politics-first-law-late|work=[[openDemocracy]]}}
*{{cite news|last1=Snyder|first1=Jack|title=On a Wing and a Prayer: Can Religion Revive the Human Rights Movement?|url=http://www.opendemocracy.net/openglobalrights/jack-snyder/on-wing-and-prayer-can-religion-revive-rights-movement|work=[[openDemocracy]]|date=April 14, 2014}}
*{{cite news|last1=Snyder|first1=Jack|title=Human Rights in the Vernacular|url=https://www.opendemocracy.net/openglobalrights/jack-snyder/human-rights-in-vernacular|work=[[openDemocracy]]|date=June 19, 2013}}
*{{cite news|last1=Snyder|first1=Jack|last2=Cooley|first2=Alexander|title=Rank Has Its Privileges: How International Ratings Dumb Down Global Governance|work=[[Foreign Affairs (magazine)|Foreign Affairs]]|url=https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/2015-10-20/rank-has-its-privileges|volume=94|issue=6|date=Nov–Dec 2015}}
*{{cite news|last1=Snyder|first1=Jack|title=One World, Rival Theories|url=https://foreignpolicy.com/2009/10/26/one-world-rival-theories/|work=[[Foreign Policy (magazine)|Foreign Policy]]|issue=145|date=Nov–Dec 2004|pages=52–62}}
*{{cite news|last1=Snyder|first1=Jack|last2=Mansfield|first2=Edward|title=Democratization and War|work=[[Foreign Affairs (magazine)|Foreign Affairs]]|volume=74|issue=3|date=May–June 1995}}

==References==
{{reflist|30em}}

==External links==
*[https://sipa.columbia.edu/faculty-research/faculty-directory/jack-snyder Jack Snyder | Columbia SIPA] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200831030531/https://www.sipa.columbia.edu/faculty-research/faculty-directory/jack-snyder |date=2020-08-31 }}

{{Recipients of the Karl Deutsch Award (International Studies Association)}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Snyder, Jack}}
[[Category:Harvard College alumni]]
[[Category:1951 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:American political scientists]]
[[Category:American international relations scholars]]
[[Category:Political realists]]
[[Category:Columbia University alumni]]
[[Category:Columbia School of International and Public Affairs faculty]]
[[Category:Neoclassical realists (international relations)]]