Jack Snyder is the Robert and Renée 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 Human Rights for Pragmatists: Social Power in Modern Times (Princeton University Press, 2022); Human Rights Futures (co-edited with Stephen Hopgood and Leslie Vinjamuri, Cambridge University Press, 2017); Ranking the World: Grading States as a Tool of Global Governance (co-editor with Alexander Cooley; Cambridge University Press, 2015); Power and Progress: International Politics in Transition (Routledge, 2012); Religion and International Relations Theory (Columbia, 2011); 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 2000); Myths of Empire: Domestic Politics and International Ambition (Cornell, 1991); and Civil Wars, Insecurity, and Intervention, co-editor with Barbara Walter (Columbia, 1999).

His articles on such topics as democratization and war, imperial overstretch, war crimes tribunals versus amnesties as strategies for preventing atrocities, and international relations theory after September 11 have appeared in The American Political Science Review, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, International Organization, International Security, and World Politics.

A Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Snyder received a B.A. in government from Harvard University in 1973, a Certificate from Columbia’s Russian Institute in 1978, and a Ph.D. in political science from Columbia in 1981.

Books

Jack Snyder, Human Rights for Pragmatists: Social Power in Modern Times (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2022).
Heather Elko McKibben, Karen Mingst, and Jack Snyder, Essential Readings in World Politics, 7th ed. (New York: Norton, 2019).
Stephen Hopgood, Jack Snyder, and Leslie Vinjamuri, Human Rights Futures (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2017).
Alexander Cooley and Jack Snyder, Ranking the World: Grading States as a Tool of Global Governance (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2015).
Jack Snyder, Power and Progress: International Politics in Transition (New York: Routledge, 2012).
Jack Snyder, Religion and International Relations Theory (New York: Columbia University Press, 2011).
Edward D. Mansfield and Jack Snyder, Electing to Fight: Why Emerging Democracies Go to War (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2005).
Jack Snyder, From Voting to Violence: Democratization and Nationalist Conflict (New York: Norton Books, 2000).
Jack Snyder and Barbara Walter, Civil Wars, Insecurity, and Intervention (New York: Columbia University Press, 1999).
Barnett Rubin and Jack Snyder, Post-Soviet Political Order: Conflict and State-Building (Abingdon, UK: Routledge, 1998).
Robert Jervis and Jack Snyder, Coping with Complexity in the International System (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1993).
Robert Jervis and Jack Snyder, Dominoes and Bandwagons: Strategic Beliefs and Superpower Competition in the Eurasian Rimland (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 1991).
Jack Snyder, Myths of Empire: Domestic Politics and International Ambition (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1991).
Jack Snyder, The Ideology of the Offensive: Military Decision Making and the Disasters of 1914 (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1989).

Principal Articles

Jack Snyder, “Human Rights Pragmatism: Problems of Structure and Agency,” Political Science Quarterly, forthcoming soon online in First View.
Jack Snyder, “How Central Is Race to International Relations?” Security Studies vol. 32, no. 4-5 (2023): 892-906, special issue on “Race and Security.” 27 November 2023. 
Jack Snyder, “Barbara Walter’s Script for Civil War in America: A Review Essay,” Political Science Quarterly 137:4 (Winter 2022), 765-771
Jack Snyder, “Acting in Which System?” in Richard H. Immerman, Stacie Goddard, and Diane Labrosse, eds., The Jervis Effect (New York: Columbia University Press, forthcoming 2024), revised version of “Acting in Which System?” H-Diplo ISSF Tribute to the Life, Legacy, and Scholarship of Robert Jervis, Part II, August 25, 2022, 85-96
Jack Snyder, “Backlash against Naming and Shaming: The Politics of Status and Emotion,” British Journal of Politics and International Relations 22:4 (2020), symposium on “Backlash Politics.”
Jack Snyder, “Backlash against Human Rights Shaming: Emotions in Groups,” International Theory 12:1 (2020):109-132.
Jack Snyder, “The Modernization Trap,” The Journal of Democracy 28, no.2 (2017).
Thomas Graham, Rajan Menon, and Jack Snyder, “Ukraine between Russia and the West: Buffer or Flashpoint?,” World Policy Journal 34, no. 1 (Spring 2017).
Rajan Menon and Jack Snyder, “Buffer Zones: Anachronism, Power Vacuum, or Confidence Builder?,” Review of International Studies 43, no. 5 (2017).
Jack Snyder, “Trade Expectations and Great Power Conflict,” International Security 40, no. 3 (2015/16).
Alexander Cooley and Jack Snyder, “Rank Has Its Privileges: How International Ratings Dumb Down Global Governance,” Foreign Affairs 96, no. 4 (November-December 2015).
Jack S. Levy and Jack Snyder, “Everyone’s favored Year for War – or Not?” International Security 39, no. 4 (Spring 2015).
Jack Snyder and Leslie Vinjamuri, “Law and Politics in Transitional Justice,” The Annual Review of Political Science 18, no. 1 (2015).
Jack Snyder, “Dueling Security Stories: Wilson and Lodge Talk Strategy,” Security Studies 24, no. 1 (2015).
Jack Snyder, “Active Citation: In Search of Smoking Guns or Meaningful Context?” Security Studies 23, no. 4 (2014).
Jack Snyder, “Better Now Than Later: The Paradox of 1914 as Everyone’s Favored Year for War,” International Security 39, no. 1 (2014).
Dawn Brancati and Jack Snyder, “Time to Kill: The Impact of Election Timing on Post-Conflict Stability,” Journal of Conflict Resolution 57, no. 5 (2013).
Edward D. Mansfield and Jack Snyder, “Democratization and the Arab Spring,” International Interactions 38, no. 5 (2012).
Jack Snyder and Leslie Vinjamuri, “Principled Pragmatism and the Logic of Consequences,” International Theory 4, no. 3 (2012).
Dawn Brancati and Jack Snyder, “Rushing to the Polls: The Causes of Premature Post-Conflict Elections,” Journal of Conflict Resolution 55, no. 3 (2011).
Jack Snyder and Erica Borghard, “The Cost of Empty Threats: A Penny, Not a Pound,” American Political Science Review (August 2011).
Erica Borghard and Jack Snyder, “The Cost of Empty Threats: A Penny, Not a Pound,” American Political Science Review 105, no. 3 (2011).
Jack Snyder, “The Domestic Political Logic of Gorbachev’s New Thinking in Foreign Policy,” The End of the Cold War and International Relations: Twenty Years On, a special issue of International Politics 48, no. 4-5 (2011).
Thomas J. Christensen and Jack Snyder, “Multipolarity, Perceptions, and the Tragedy of 1914,” International Studies Quarterly 55, no. 2 (June 2011).
Erica Borghard and Jack Snyder, “The Cost of Empty Threats: A Penny, Not a Pound,” The American Political Science Review 105, no. 3 (2011).
Edward D. Mansfield and Jack Snyder, “Pathways to War in Democratic Transitions,” International Organization 63, no. 2 (2009).
Jack Snyder and Suzanne Katzenstein, “Expediency of the Angels,” The National Interest 100 (2009).
Yaeli Bloch-Elkon, Robert Y. Shapiro, and Jack Snyder, “Free Hand Abroad, Divide and Rule at Home,” World Politics 61, no. 1 (2009).
Jack Snyder, “Defensive Realism and the ‘New’ History of World War I,” International Security 33, no. 1 (2008).
Edward D. Mansfield and Jack Snyder, “The Sequencing ‘Fallacy’,” Journal of Democracy 18, no. 3 (2007).
Edward Mansfield and Jack Snyder, “Prone to Violence: The Paradox of the Democratic Peace,” The National Interest 89 (2005-2006).
Jack Snyder, “The Crusade of Illusions,” Foreign Affairs 85, no. 4 (2006).
Jack Snyder, “Empire: A Blunt Tool for Democratization,” Daedalus 134, no. 2 (2005).
Jack Snyder and Leslie Vinjamuri, “Advocacy and Scholarship in the Study of International War Crime Tribunals and Transitional Justice,” Annual Review of Political Science 7, no. 1 (2004).
Jack Snyder and Leslie Vinjamuri, “Trials and Errors: Principle and Pragmatism in International Justice,” International Security 28, no. 3 (2003-2004).
Jack Snyder, “About the empire,” Aspenia: Rivista di Aspen Institute Italia 22 (2003).
Jack Snyder, “Imperial Temptations,” The National Interest 71 (2003).
Edward Mansfield and Jack Snyder, “Incomplete Democratic Transitions and the Outbreak of Military Disputes,” International Studies Quarterly 46, no. 4 (2002).
Edward Mansfield and Jack Snyder, “Democratic Transitions, Institutional Strength, and War,” International Organization 56, no. 2 (2002): 597.
Jack Snyder, “Anarchy and Culture:  Insights from the Anthropology of War,” International Organization 56, no. 1 (2002).
Jack Snyder, “Robert Jervis: Illuminating the Dilemmas of International Politics,” PS: Political Science and Politics 33, no. 3 (2000).
Robert Jervis, Cheryl Koopman, Rose McDermott, Eric Shiraev, and Jack Snyder, “Beliefs about International Security and Change in 1992 among Russian and American National Security Elites,” Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology 4, no. 1 (1998).
Thomas Christensen and Jack Snyder, “Progressive Research on Degenerate Alliances,” American Political Science Review 91, no. 4 (December 1997).
Edward Mansfield and Jack Snyder, “A Reply to Thompson and Tucker,” Journal of Conflict Resolution 41, no. 3 (1997).
Karen Ballentine and Jack Snyder, “Nationalism and the Marketplace of Ideas,” International Security 21, no. 2 (1996).
Edward Mansfield and Jack Snyder, “Correspondence:  The Effects of Democratization on War,” International Security 20 (1996).
Joe Dioso, Robert Jervis, Cheryl Koopman, Rose McDermott, and Jack Snyder, “Stability and Change in American Elite Beliefs about International Relations,” Journal of Peace Psychology 1, no. 4 (1995).
Jack Snyder, “International Security in the Black Sea Region: A Systems Perspective,” Bogazici Journal 9, no. 1 (1995).
Edward Mansfield and Jack Snyder, “Democratization and the Danger of War,” International Security 20, no. 1 (1995).
Edward Mansfield and Jack Snyder, “Democratization and War,” Foreign Affairs 74, no. 3 (1995): 79.
Jack Snyder, “Russian Backwardness and the Future of Europe,” Daedalus 123, no. 2 (1994).
Jack Snyder, “Nationalism and the Crisis of the Post-Soviet State,” Survival 35, no. 1 (1993).
Jack Snyder, “Nationalism and Instability in the Former Soviet Empire,” Arms Control 12, no. 3 (1991).
Robert Jervis, Cheryl Koopman, and Jack Snyder, “Theory-Driven Versus Data-Driven Assessment in a Crisis,” Journal of Conflict Resolution 34, no. 4 (1990).
Thomas Christensen and Jack Snyder, “Chain Gangs and Passed Bucks: Predicting Alliance Patterns in Multipolarity,” International Organization 44, no. 2 (Spring 1990).
Jack Snyder, “Averting Anarchy in the New Europe,” International Security 14, no. 4 (1990).
Jack Snyder, “International Leverage on Soviet Domestic Change,” World Politics 42, no. 1 (1989).
Robert Jervis, Cheryl Koopman, and Jack Snyder, “American Elite Views of Relations with the Soviet Union,” Journal of Social Issues 45, no. 2 (1989).
Jack Snyder, “Limiting Offensive Conventional Forces:  Soviet Proposals and Western Options,” International Security 12, no. 4 (1988).
Jack Snyder, “Science and Sovietology: Bridging the Methods Gap in Soviet Foreign Policy Studies,” World Politics 40, no. 2 (1988).
Jack Snyder, “The Gorbachev Revolution: The Waning of Soviet Expansionism?” International Security 12, no. 4 (1987-1988).
Jack Snyder, “Alliance Commitments, Offense, and Deterrent Strategy,” International Security (1986).
Jack Snyder, “Richness, Rigor, and Relevance in the Study of Soviet Foreign Policy,” International Security 9, no. 3 (1984-1985).
Jack Snyder, “The Meaning of Moderation,” Orbis 28, no. 3 (1984): 615.
Jack Snyder, “Civil-Military Relations and the Cult of the Offensive, 1914 and 1984,” International Security 9, no. 1 (1984).
Jack Snyder, “Rationality at the Brink: The Role of Cognitive Processes in Failures of Deterrence,” World Politics 30, no. 3 (1978).

Book Chapters

Tamar Mitts and Jack Snyder, “Regulating the Marketplace of Ideas,” in Jack Snyder, ed., Human Rights for Pragmatists (Princeton City, NY: Princeton University Press, 2022).
Dawn Brancati, Edward D. Mansfield, and Jack Snyder, “A Not So Great Awakening? Early Elections, Weak Institutions, and the Risk of Violence,” in Managing Conflict in a World Adrift Chester Crocker, eds. Fen Osler Hampson, and Pamela Aall (Washington, DC: United States Institute of Peace, 2015).
Jack Snyder, “Early Elections and the Risk of Violence in Weak Middle Eastern States,” in Developing Democracies: Democracy, Democratization and Development, ed. Michael Boss (Aarhus: Aarhus University Press, 2013).
Jack Snyder, “Both Fox and Hedgehog: The Art of Nesting Structural and Perceptual Perspectives,” in Psychology, Strategy and Conflict: Perceptions of Insecurity in International Relations, ed. James W. Davis (New York: Routledge, 2012).
Jack Snyder, “Tensions within Realism: 1954 and After,” in The Invention of International Relations Theory: Realism, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the 1954 Conference on Theory, ed. Nicholas Guilhot (New York: Columbia University Press, 2011).
Edward D. Mansfield and Jack Snyder, “Does War Influence Democratization?” in In War’s Wake: International Conflict and the Fate of Liberal Democracy, eds. Elizabeth Kier and Ronald Krebs (Cambridge University Press, 2010).
Jack Snyder, “Realism, Refugees, and Strategies of Humanitarianism,” in Refugees in International Relations, eds. Alexander Betts and Gil Loescher (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2010).
Jack Snyder, “Elections as Milestones and Stumbling Blocks for Peaceful Democratic Consolidation,” in International Policy Analysis (Berlin: Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, 2010).
Edward D. Mansfield and Jack Snyder, “Democratization, Conflict, and Trade,” in Is Democracy Exportable?, eds. Zoltan Barany and Robert G. Moser (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Companion, 2009).
Jack Snyder, “Problems of Democratic Transition in Divided Societies,” in Domestic Perspectives on Contemporary Democracy, ed. Peter F. Nardulli (Champaign, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2008).
Jack Snyder and Leslie Vinjamuri, “Preconditions of International Normative Change: Implications for Order and Violence,” in Order, Conflict, and Violence, eds. Stathis Kalyvas and Tarek Masoud (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2008).
Michael Barnett and Jack Snyder, “Grand Strategies of Humanitarianism,” in Humanitarianism in Question: Politics, Power, Ethics, ed. Thomas Weiss (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2008).
Jack Snyder and Leslie Vinjamuri, “Unipolar empire and principled multilateralism as strategies for international change,” in Multilateralism and Security Institutions in an Era of Globalization, eds. Dimitris Bourantonis, Kostas Ifantis, and Panayotis Tsakonas (London: Routledge, 2008).
Edward D. Mansfield and Jack Snyder, “Electing to Fight: Emerging Democracies and International Instability,” in NATO-Russia Relations in the Twenty-First Century, ed. Aurel Braun (Abingdon, UK: Routledge, 2008).
Edward Mansfield and Jack Snyder, “Turbulent Transitions: Why Emerging Democracies Go to War,” in Leashing the Dogs of War: Conflict Management in a Divided World, eds. Chester Crocker, Fen Hampson, and Pamela Aall (Washington, DC: United States Institute of Peace Press, 2007).
Jack Snyder, “How Should Sovereignty Be Defended?” in Politics without Sovereignty: A Critique of Contemporoary International Relations, eds. Christopher Bickerton, Philip Cunliffe, and Alexander Gourevitch (London, UK: University College London Press, 2007).
Jack Snyder, “Networks and Ideologies: The Fusion of ‘Is’ and ‘Ought’ as a Means to Social Power,” in An Anatomy of Power: The Social Theory of Michael Mann, eds. John A. Hall and Ralph Schroeder (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006).
Jack Snyder, “Myths of Empire and Strategies of Hegemony,” in Lessons of Empire, eds. Craig Calhoun, Frederick Cooper, and Kevin Moore (New York: New Press, 2006).
Jack Snyder, “‘Is’ and ‘Ought’: Evaluating Empirical Aspects of Normative Research,” in Progress in International Relations Theory, eds. Colin Elman and Miriam Elman (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2003).
Edward Mansfield and Jack Snyder, “Democratization and War: From Napoleon to Millennium’s End,” in Turbulent Peace: The Challenges of Managing International Conflict, eds. Chester Crocker, Fen Hampson, and Pamela Aall (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Institute of Peace, 2001).
Jack Snyder, “Conclusion: Managing Ethnopolitics in Eastern Europe,” in The Politics of National Minority Participation in Post-Communist Europe: State-building, Democracy, and Ethnic Mobilization, ed. Jonathan Stein (Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 2000).
Jack Snyder, “Russia: Responses to Relative Decline,” in International Order and the Future of World Politics, eds. T. V. Paul and John Hall (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1999).
Robert Jervis and Jack Snyder, “Civil War and the Security Dilemma,” in Civil Wars, Insecurity, and Intervention, eds. Jack Snyder and Barbara Walter (Columbia University Press, 1999).
Jack Snyder, “Introduction: Reconstructing Politics amidst the Wreckage of Empire,” in Post-Soviet Political Order: Conflict and State-Building, eds. Barnett Rubin and Jack Snyder (Abingdon, UK: Routledge, 1998).
Jack Snyder, “Democratization, War, and Nationalism in the Post-Communist States,” in The Sources of Russian Foreign Policy after the Cold War, ed. Celeste Wallander (New York: Westview, 1996).
Jack Snyder, “Military Force and Regional Order,” in Coping with Conflict after the Cold War, eds. Edward Kolodziej and Roger Kanet (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996).
Jack Snyder, “Potential European Crises in Historical Perspective: Intervention versus Localization,” in Sources and Areas of Future Possible Crises in Europe, ed. Armand Clesse (Luxembourg: Luxembourg Institute for European and International Studies, 1995).
Jack Snyder, “Myths, Modernization, and the Post-Gorbachev World,” in International Relations Theory and The End of the Cold War, eds. Richard Ned Lebow and Thomas Risse-Kappen (New York: Columbia University Press, 1995).
James Davis and Jack Snyder, “Projecting Power Abroad: An Indirect Approach,” in American Defense Annual 1994, eds. Charles Hermann and Joseph Kruzel (New York: Lexington, 1994).
Jack Snyder, “Introduction,” in Coping with Complexity in the International System, eds. Robert Jervis and Jack Snyder (New York: Westview, 1993).
Jack Snyder, “East-West Bargaining over Germany: The Search for Synergy in a Two-Level Game,” in Double-Edged Diplomacy: International Bargaining and Domestic Politics, eds. Robert Putnam, Harold Jacobson, and Peter Evans (Berkeley, CA: University of California, 1993).
Jack Snyder, “The New Nationalism: Realist Interpretations and Beyond,” in The Domestic Sources of Grand Strategy, eds. Richard Rosecrance and Arthur Stein (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1993).
Jack Snyder, “Introduction” and “Conclusion,” in Dominoes and Bandwagons: Strategic Beliefs and Great Power Competition in the Eurasian Rimland, eds. Robert Jervis and Jack Snyder (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991).
Jack Snyder, “The Politics of Empire: A Theory with an Application to the Soviet Case,” in History, the White House and the Kremlin: Statesmen as Historians, ed. Michael Fry (London: Pinter, 1991).
Jack Snyder, “The Transformation of the Soviet Empire: Consequences for International Peace,” in Eagle in a New World: American Grand Strategy in the Post-Cold War Era, eds. Kenneth Oye, R. Lieber, and D. Rothchild (New York: Harper Collins, 1991).
Jack Snyder, “Controlling Nationalism in the New Europe,” in Beyond East-West Confrontation: Searching for a New Security Structure in Europe, eds. Armand Clesse and Lothar Ruehl (Baden-Baden, Germany: Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft, 1990).
Jack Snyder, “The Concept of Strategic Culture: Caveat Emptor,” in Strategic Power, USA/USSR, ed. C. G. Jacobsen (London: Macmillan, 1990).
Jack Snyder, “Perceptions of the Security Dilemma in 1914,” in Psychology and Deterrence, eds. Robert Jervis, Richard N. Lebow, and Janice G. Stern. (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1985).

Other Articles, Testimony and Reports

Hussein Banai and Jack Synder, “In Conversation with Jack Snyder on Human Rights in World Politics,” International Studies Review (ISR) podcast, 30 May 2023.
Jack Snyder, “Response: Making Stalemate a Goal,” Boston Review, 26 April 2023.
Jack Snyder, “A Pragmatic Path for Promoting Democracy and Human Rights,” Democracy for the Arab World Now, 4 October 2022.
Jack Snyder, “Why the Human Rights Movement is Losing,” Foreign Affairs online, 21 July 2022.
Tamar Mitts and Jack Snyder, “When Twitter suspends users, their views get more extreme,” The Washington Post Monkey Cage, 16 June 2022.
Jack Snyder, “The First Amendment Is Not a Suicide Pact,” American Purpose (2021)
Elazar Barkan and Jack Snyder, “Project on the UN Human Rights Treaty Bodies reform process,” Grant: Columbia President’s Global Innovation Fund (2016-2018).
Jack Snyder, “On a Wing and a Prayer: Can Religion Revive the Human Rights Movement?,” OpenDemocracy, 14 April 2014.
Erica Borghard and Jack Snyder, “Evading Invasion: Syria’s Chemical Weapons and Obama’s Audience Costs,” Political Violence @ a Glance, 13 December 2013.
Jack Snyder, “Human Rights in the Vernacular,” OpenDemocracy, 19 June 2013.
Edward Mansfield and Jack Snyder, “Risking Civil War by Promoting Democracy,” Eldis, (May 2007).
Andrei Kortunov and Jack Snyder, “French syndrome on Soviet soil? Concerning past and future attempts to place the military under civilian control,” New Times 44 (1989).
Jack Snyder, “The Psychology of Escalation: Sino-Soviet Relations, 1958-1963,” RAND Paper (1980).
Jack Snyder, “The Soviet Strategic Culture: Implications for Limited Nuclear Operations,” RAND Report R-2154-AF (1977).