James Fearon - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.

org/wiki/James_Fearon

James Fearon
James D. Fearon (born c. 1963) is the Theodore and Francis Geballe Professor of Political
Science at Stanford University; he is known for his work on the theory of civil wars, international
bargaining, war's inefficiency puzzle, audience costs, and ethnic constructivism. According to a
2011 survey of International Relations scholars, Fearon is among the most influential International
Relations scholars of the last twenty years.[1] His 1995 article "Rationalist Explanations for War" is
the most assigned journal article in International Relations graduate training at U.S. universities.
[2]

Academic career
Fearon has a PhD from UC Berkeley and a BA from Harvard University. At Berkeley, Kenneth
Waltz was Fearon's dissertation advisor.[3][4] He is a National Academy of Sciences member since
2012.[5]

Fearon's work on wars emphasizes the need to explain why rationally-led states end up fighting a
war instead of bargaining, even though bargaining can make both sides better off a priori. He also
elaborates on how democracies are better able to signal intent in war based on domestic audience
costs. Fearon has also contributed to the study of deliberative democracy.[6] Fearon has three basic
assumptions about war. First, war is a more costly choice than peace. Second, war is predictably
unpredictable. In other words, although neither side may be sure exactly who will win, they can
agree on the relatively likelihood each will win. And third, there are no direct benefits from
fighting; Fearon calls these pieces war's inefficiency puzzle. Fearon contends that anarchy by itself
cannot explain why rational actors cannot bargain. He offers three explanations for why bargaining
breakdowns, and war, occur. First, actors in an anarchic system may suffer from a credible
commitment problem, in which there are incentives for either party to renege on their end of an
agreement. Second, states may have private information and incentives to misrepresent said
information during the bargaining stage. Third, bargaining may be rendered impossible because of
what Fearon dubs "issue indivisibility," in which a particular issue in question cannot be divided.[7]

Fearon was identified by constructivist scholar Marc Lynch as the "leading rationalist" in
international relations theory and credited him with resolving (along with constructivist Alexander
Wendt) much of the theoretical debate between the two camps.[8] His 2003 study with David
Laitin is considered the "most influential" in modern research on civil war.[9]

Notes and references

1. "TRIP AROUND THE WORLD: Teaching, Research, and Policy Views of International
Relations Faculty in 20 Countries" (https://www.wm.edu/offices/itpir/_documents/trip/trip_aroun
d_the_world_2011.pdf) (PDF).
2. Colgan, Jeff D. (2016-09-01). "Where Is International Relations Going? Evidence from
Graduate Training" (https://academic.oup.com/isq/article/60/3/486/2469867). International
Studies Quarterly. 60 (3): 486–498. doi:10.1093/isq/sqv017 (https://doi.org/10.1093%2Fisq%2F

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James Fearon - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Fearon

sqv017). ISSN 0020-8833 (https://www.worldcat.org/issn/0020-8833).

3. Waltz, Kenneth; Fearon, James (2012-06-15). "A Conversation with Kenneth Waltz" (https://do
i.org/10.1146%2Fannurev-polisci-020511-174136). Annual Review of Political Science. 15 (1):
1–12. doi:10.1146/annurev-polisci-020511-174136 (https://doi.org/10.1146%2Fannurev-polisc
i-020511-174136). ISSN 1094-2939 (https://www.worldcat.org/issn/1094-2939).
4. "Interview - James Fearon" (https://www.e-ir.info/2013/12/16/interview-james-fearon/). E-
International Relations. 2013-12-16. Retrieved 2021-06-06.
5. "Six Stanford faculty elected to National Academy of Sciences" (https://news.stanford.edu/new
s/2012/may/nas-new-members-050312.html). 3 May 2012.
6. Elster, Jon (editor) (1998). "(see intro by Jon Elster and chpt 2 by Fearon)". Deliberative
Democracy (Cambridge Studies in the Theory of Democracy). Cambridge University Press.
ISBN 978-0-521-59696-1. {{cite book}}: |author= has generic name (help)
7. Fearon, James (1995). "Rationalist Explanations for War". International Organization. 379–414
(3): 379–414. doi:10.1017/s0020818300033324 (https://doi.org/10.1017%2Fs00208183000333
24). S2CID 38573183 (https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:38573183).
8. Lynch, Marc (July 25, 2007). "Abu Aardvark: IR: Constructivism v Rationalism" (http://abuaardv
ark.typepad.com/abuaardvark/2005/07/ir_constructivi.html). Abu Aardvark. Retrieved
10 November 2013.
9. Cederman, Lars-Erik; Vogt, Manuel (2017-07-26). "Dynamics and Logics of Civil War" (http://di
scovery.ucl.ac.uk/10040601/). Journal of Conflict Resolution. 61 (9): 1992–2016. doi:
10.1177/0022002717721385 (https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0022002717721385).
ISSN 0022-0027 (https://www.worldcat.org/issn/0022-0027). S2CID 149212588 (https://api.se
manticscholar.org/CorpusID:149212588).

External links
▪ James Fearon's faculty page (http://fsi.stanford.edu/people/james_d_fearon)
▪ Interview with James Fearon by Theory Talks (http://www.theory-talks.org/2008/09/theory-talk-1
8.html)

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