David D. Laitin, James D. Fearon | Biography

David D. Laitin

David D. Laitin was born on June 4, 1945, in Brooklyn, New York. He earned his undergraduate degree in political science from Swarthmore College in 1967. After completing his undergraduate degree he joined the Peace Corps, where he served in Somalia and Grenada. Upon returning to the United States, Laitin earned his doctorate (Ph.D.) in political science from the University of California at Berkeley. He started working as a professor at the University of California in San Diego in 1975. In 1987, he worked at the University of Chicago. In 1999, Laitin began working at Stanford University in California, where he has remained for over 20 years. Laitin wrote his first book, Politics, Language and Thought: The Somali Experience in 1977. He has written many other books, including Nations, States, and Violence (2007) and Why Muslim Integration Fails in Christian-Heritage Societies (2016). In 2019 he wrote African Politics Since Independence (2019).

James D. Fearon

James D. Fearon was born in 1963. He earned his undergraduate degree from Harvard University and his master's degree and doctorate at the University of California at Berkeley. From 1991 to 1998, he worked as a professor at the University of Chicago. In 1998, Fearon began working as a professor at Stanford University's School of Humanities and Sciences. He has earned many academic honors and is a member of the National Academy of Sciences. He has authored and co-authored several papers, articles, and other academic content.

Co-Authors

The co-authors work together at Stanford University. They share research interests related to ethnic violence, failed states, and civil war. Laitin and Fearon started working together to study the long-term constant armed conflict in struggling nations. They published their first paper, Explaining Interethnic Cooperation, together in 1996 in the academic journal The American Political Science Review. The article later received that year's award for being the best article published in The American Political Science Review.