Columbia University Professor of International Relations Jack Snyder tonight will offer students atypical routes to promoting human rights efforts internationally.
Snyder, a leading scholar in security studies, will deliver this year's Frank C. Colcord Lecture, titled "Pragmatic Approaches to Promoting Human Rights," at 7 p.m. in Ballou Hall's Coolidge Room.
Snyder said that the tactics typically used by human rights organizations are of limited utility and plans to share alternative routes that may more effectively advance human rights endeavors.
"What I want to talk about is ways in which people might try to advance human rights that would be different than the tactics that the activists have traditionally promoted, even while trying to accomplish the same objectives," he told the Daily.
Activists, he said, have generally employed approaches to human rights that emphasize legal routes — such as signing treaties and illegalizing certain behavior — and moral avenues, which involve the "naming and shaming" of those who violate moral principles and international standards of behavior.
These tactics, Snyder said, often neglect the nuances of individual countries.
"Social scientists have been studying these tactics, asking what causes human rights to be good or bad in a country," he said. "They are finding that the tactics that the activists use have limited impact. The things that really matter for human rights are whether the country is at peace, whether the country is a democracy — structural factors."
Future endeavors to advance human rights, he said, should take a less heavy−handed approach — one that recognizes different cultural norms and offers more conciliatory alternatives to the parties involved.
Among his suggestions is granting amnesty to war criminals, as opposed to trying them in court, as a way to encourage them to step down from power and surrender their weapons. Child labor, another domain in which human rights are widely neglected, can be eradicated through economic change and public education improvements, rather than legal bans, he said.
Snyder, whose research focuses on the intersection of domestic and international politics, has written four books and numerous articles. His most recent book is "Electing to Fight: Why Emerging Democracies Go to War," published in 2005.
Faculty members from the Department of Political Science praised Snyder as a top scholar in the field of International Relations.
"Jack Snyder is one of the foremost International Relations scholars working in the United States — really in the world — today," Associate Professor of Political Science Jeffrey Taliaferro said. "He is a scholar who has a very, very wide range and made a very wide range of contributions and is one of the most influential people in the discipline, both because of his publications … [and] also because of his teaching."
Chair of the Department Robert Devigne echoed similar sentiments.
"Many people in the department know Jack Snyder. We have great respect for him," Devigne said. "We had him give a talk here five years ago, and it was very well−received, and we're very excited about him being here."
Taliaferro said that Snyder has significantly impacted his own work in the field.
"Professor Snyder has had a profound influence on my work over the last 15 years," Taliaferro said, adding that he first read Snyder's work in graduate school.
Snyder's legacy, as it pertains to International Relations, Taliaferro said, includes his core argument about the influence of domestic politics on International Relations, specifically the degree to which the government is beholden to domestic institutions and interest groups.
Taliaferro said that he had met Snyder on a number of occasions, and with the approval of the Department of Political Science, he invited Snyder to speak at Tufts while at a conference in Beijing last spring.
"I think it's going to be a provocative lecture; I think it's going to be a very thought−provoking lecture," Taliaferro said.
Snyder spoke at Tufts five years ago and said that his colleagues on the Hill were "very persuasive" when they invited him back this time around. "They promised me a good, lively audience," he said.
The department expects between 75 and 100 people to attend the lecture, according to Jeannine Lenehan, communications coordinator for the department.
Lenehan said that the department had extended invitations to political science alumni, members of the faculty and staff, and political science majors. She added that the event was open to all members of the Tufts community.
Taliaferro emphasized the importance of an undergraduate student presence at the event. "It's always a pleasure to be able to invite such people to campus to share their expertise and their knowledge with students," he said.
The Frank C. Colcord lecture series is funded by a bequest made to the university by Colcord when he passed away in 2006 and is administered by the political science department, according to Taliaferro. Colcord served as a professor and chair of the department and as dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences during his time at Tufts.
