Background

Richard C. Snyder was born on August 21, 1916, in Kingston, New York, United States.

Education

Snyder graduated from Union College in 1937 and earned his doctorate in 1945 from Columbia University.

Career

Snyder’s first post was as secretary of war and peace studies at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York City. He then taught at Princeton University and later became chairman of political science at Northwestern University. As dean and professor of administration and political science at the University of California Irvine from 1965 to 1970, he was chairman of the California Social Science Study Commission.

Snyder’s final post was as director of the Mershon Center at Ohio State University.

Achievements

• Snyder was an authority on United States foreign policy whose signature work, American Foreign Policy (1948), was written early in his career. His other writings include The Most Favored Nation Clause (1948), (with H. H. Wilson) Roots of Political Behavior (1949), (with R. K. Carr, Morison and Bernstein) American Democracy in Theory and Practice (1954), (with E. S. Furniss, Jr.) American Foreign Policy: Formulation, Principles and Practices (1954), Deterrence, Decision-Making and Weapons Systems (1961), (with J. A. Robinson) National and International Decision-Making (1961), (with H. W. Bruck and Sapin) Foreign Policy decision-making (1962), (with Dean Pruitt) Theory and Research on the Causes of War (1969). He also contributed to Contemporary Civilization in the West, Volume II (1947), Research Frontiers in Politics and Government (1955), Approaches to the Study of Politics (1958), Essays on the Behavioral Study of Politics (1962), The Limits of Behavioralism in Political Science (1962), Simulation in International Relations (1963), A Design for International Relations Research: Scope, Theory, Methods and Relevance (1970), Universities and Transnational Approaches to the Solution of World Problems (1973).

Works

More photos

• book

  • Foreign Policy Decision Making

    (Foreign Policy Decision-Making is of continued relevance ...)

    1962
  • The Role Of The Military In American Foreign Policy
  • American Foreign Policy Formulation, Principles, And Programs 1954

Membership

Snyder served as president of the International Studies Association from 1971 to 1972.