In Memoriam: J. David Singer "Parent of the Field" 1925-2009
The field of conflict and peace studies lost another pioneering and path breaking founder when Emeritus Professor David Singer died just after Christmas as a result of a car accident last September.
David Singer was one of the group of social scientists who helped launch the new field of conflict analysis—as well as the Journal of Conflict Resolution—at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, in the mid 1950s. However, unlike many of the others in that extraordinary group – Kenneth and Elise Boulding, Herb Kelman, Dean Pruitt, Richard Snyder—all of whom moved on, Singer stayed on at U Mich and helped make it one of the key centers of scholarship for the new field.
Although he could write with wit, knowledge, and insight about arms control, strategic issues, social science methodology, and peace research in general, David Singer was best known for his work on the “Correlates of War” project. Building on the earlier work of Quincy Wright and Wright’s massive (and pre-computer) “Study of War,” David and his historian colleague, Melvin Small, determined that the theoretical assertions of international relation’s “balance of power” theorists tended to be anecdotal at best and in need of testing against systematically gathered, comparative data. In the “CoW” Project, Singer and Small set out to gather carefully defined, carefully categorized, and carefully measured data on all wars and war related phenomena (alliances, military expenditures, demographics) post-1815, in order to see what actually correlated with the various types of war that had take place during the period after Napoleon.
Facing criticism from traditional historians as well as from some of his own colleagues in the field—who were happy at the hypothesis proposing aspects of theory but unwilling to go to the data collection and hypothesis testing stage—David defended his ideas and resultant findings with gusto and much humor. The CoW project continues at the University of Illinois to this day, and its influence endures in its many offspring, not the least of which is the Conflict Data Program at Uppsala University and their annual “States in Armed Conflict” reports.
In many ways, Dave Singer’s legacy to our field also survives, as he was constantly requiring that conflict and peace studies should proceed on the basis of clarity of argument, rigor of definition, and above all the support of empirical evidence for theoretical statements. His many colleagues will miss his critical eye, friendly dissent, and huge sense of humor. Fortunately, Jannie Botes and I managed a long video interview with him three years ago for our “Parents of the Field” project, so future generations will soon be able to get some measure of him as a scholar and as a generous human being.
I was looking forward to having a drink and a good laugh with him at this year’s International Studies Association meeting, but now—much to my sorrow—I won’t.
—CRM.
Dr. Singer is survived by his wife, Diane Macaulay, his daughters Katie and Annie Singer, his grandchildren Kayla and Jake—and as Diane remarked, "he belongs to the entire discipline."