Singer, J. David (Joel David), 1925-2009

University of Michigan professor of political science, research scientist at the Mental Health Research Institute, and pioneer in the interdisciplinary and quantitative approach to conflict resolution.

A widely recognized authority in the field of peace research, J. David Singer has been associated with the Political Science Department and the Mental Health Research Institute of the University of Michigan since the late 1950s. Noting the various facets of his career, he has written that "as a researcher, teacher, consultant and activist, my goal has been to bring rigorous scientific methods to bear on the cause of war question, and to encourage the integration of ethical concern and hard evidence."

Born in Brooklyn, New York in 1925, J. David Singer received his B.A. from Duke University in 1946 and his Ph.D. from New York University in 1956. After serving as an instructor at N.Y.U. and Vassar College and as a visiting fellow in social relations at Harvard University, he came to the University of Michigan as a visiting assistant professor in political science in 1958. He became a senior scientist at the Mental Health Research Institute in 1960 and since 1965 he has also been a professor in the Political Science Department, becoming a Professor Emeritus in 2002. Singer served in the United States Navy as a deck officer at the end of World War II and during the Korean War. He has also worked as a consultant for the United States Department of State, U.S. Department of the Navy, U.S. Foreign Service Institute, Bendix Systems Division, and others.

Singer was a member of Ann Arbor's Center for Research on Conflict Resolution, which formed in the mid-1950s. Organized by several prominent University of Michigan social scientists including Robert Angell (sociology), Kenneth Boulding (economics), and Daniel Katz (psychology), the center was an outgrowth of the Journal of Conflict Resolution founded in 1957 to encourage more vigorous research into the problems of achieving international peace. Faculty members associated with the center undertook research into such topics as military policy, arms control and disarmament. In 1963, Singer and the Mental Health Research Institute received a Carnegie grant to "review all international crises since the Napoleonic Wars with the aim of discriminating situations which were resolved in open wars and those which were settled by other means." One product of this research project, (later known as the Correlates of War Project or simply the COW Project), was a large computer data base containing information on past international conflicts as well as on certain economic and political variables which might explain the fluctuating nature of warfare. Over the years, J. David Singer authored a number of major studies (many using data produced by the COW Project) including: Deterrence, Arms Control and Disarmament: Toward a Synthesis in National Security Policy (1962, with Melvin Small); The Wages of War, 1816-1965: A Statistical Handbook (1972, with Susan Jones); Beyond Conjecture in International Politics: Abstracts of Data Based Research (1972, with Dorothy L. Barr); and Resort to Arms: International and Civil War, 1816-1980 (1982). In 1971, the Center for Research on Conflict Resolution was closed. However, the COW Project continued into the 21st Century with funding from various outside sources.

As professor of political science, J. David Singer has been a consistent advocate of rigorous training in scientific research methods. While acknowledging the value of some types of "pre-scientific" political science, he has urged that graduate courses and faculty recruitment reflect the new needs for statistical analysis, computer literacy, and reproducible research in political science. As coordinator of the World Politics field within the department (1969-1975), he pressed for such scientific rigor especially in the field of international relations. During the 1980s, Singer criticized the general decline in funding for higher education and what he felt to be the dilution of the political science program at the University of Michigan. In addition to his teaching duties in Ann Arbor, Singer has frequently been a visiting professor in Europe. He also participated in many conferences at various international peace institutes in Europe and Asia.

As a peace activist, Singer has been a prominent speaker at a wide range of public forums and rallies. A critic of narrow nationalist interests in international politics, he has advocated arms reduction as a necessary first step toward world peace. As a member of the Union of Concerned Scientists, SANE, and the World Federalist Association he has urged restraint in international conflict through petitions and political endorsements. He also publicly criticized United States government policy on such issues as the bombing of Cambodia in the 1960s and that of Libya in the 1980s.

Besides his role as researcher, teacher, and peace activist, Singer has maintained an interest in certain features of campus life at the University of Michigan. As a bike and motorcycle commuter he sought to improve motorcycle parking at the university as his many letters to the parking operations office will testify. He also took a special interest in the recreational sports program (especially tennis). Other concerns ranging from the quality of programming on the university radio station (WUOM) to the level of noise on the "diag" produced a number of lively letters in the 1960s and 1970s.

J. David Singer died in Ann Arbor in December 2009.