James Vreeland


James Raymond Vreeland
is Professor of International Relations in the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University. He conducts research in the field of international political economy.

Education and Employment

Prior to joining the faculty at Georgetown University in January 2009, he served as assistant and associate professor of Political Science at Yale University. He has held visiting positions and affiliations at universities on five continents around the world, including the University of California, Los Angeles, the ETH Zürich, Bond University, the University of São Paulo, and most recently Korea University. He received his B.A. from Manhattan College, where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa and Summa Cum Laude in 1994, and his Ph.D. from New York University in 1999.

Research

His research explores a range of policy outcomes, including economic growth and the distribution of income under programs of economic reform, the foreign policy positions of developing countries, the transparency of policy making under different political institutions, and the commitment of governments to defend human rights. His research addresses the ways in which international institutions interact with domestic politics. The domestic institutions he has focused on include both democracies and dictatorships, as well as intermediate regimes. His research is most known for its treatment of international institutions, particularly the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and the United Nations Security Council.
His first book, entitled The IMF and Economic Development, was critically and favorably reviewed by several scholars. He has more recently published an introductory book about the IMF, entitled The International Monetary Fund: Politics of Conditional Lending, which was carefully critiqued in a 20-page review by the deputy director of the IMF’s External Relations Department. He is also the co-editor of Globalization and the Nation State: The Impact of the IMF and the World Bank, along with Gustav Ranis and Stephen Kosack. The book includes contributions from leading North American analysts such as Nancy Birdsall and Stephen Morris, as well as European-based analysts including Frances Stewart. He has published in numerous scholarly journals, including International Organization, Journal of Conflict Resolution, European Economic Review, Journal of Development Economics, Public Choice, World Development, International Political Science Review, Political Analysis, World Economics, and Foreign Policy Magazine. He currently serves as an associate editor for The Review of International Organizations. His research has led him to be covered by media internationally, including the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, DawnNews, BizRadio Network, the Washington Post, Financial Times Deutschland, De Tijd, and Der Bund.

Major works

Books