HARVARD GAZETTE ARCHIVES

Though many consider treaties toothless, Beth Simmons says there is evidence that treaties that provide a focus for international and domestic pressure on particular issues do seem to work. (Staff photo Jon Chase/Harvard News Office)

These traits help explain why governments would enter international agreements on areas of mainly domestic concern, such as civil rights, women's rights, race relations, and the use of torture, according to Beth Simmons, a new professor of government at Harvard.

Simmons, who took the first year of her appointment as leave, is on campus this fall and teaching international relations to graduate students. The winner of a research mentor award as an associate professor at the University of California, Berkeley, Simmons will begin teaching undergraduates here in the coming spring term.

"I'm absolutely delighted that Beth Simmons has returned to Harvard to join our ranks," said Government Department Chair Roderick MacFarquhar, Leroy B. Williams Professor of History and Political Science. "She further strengthens our first-rate group of scholars who work on international political economy in the Government Department, and adds the dimension of international law."

Her current work examines how well international agreements and treaties work. She is looking at whether nations that signed treaties regulating six areas of human rights have abided by the treaties and improved records in those areas.

Though many have criticized such treaties as toothless and unenforceable, Simmons said there is evidence that the treaties that provide a focus for international and domestic pressure on particular issues, do seem to work.

"I think generally there are some improvements [in a nation's record] once they sign on," Simmons said. "I am edging toward evidence that causes us to question that flip conclusion [that governments do whatever they want]."

Of course, Simmons also acknowledged that some nations who are signatories to human rights treaties have horrible human rights records - such as preintervention Iraq - but those nations are in the minority, she said.

"Some of the worst human rights offenders have signed all six of these [agreements]," Simmons said. "I think I can advance the case [that international agreements are useful]."

From international economics to human rights

Simmons turned her attention to human rights in recent years from international economics. Though the two subjects may seem widely separated, her examination is centered on the relationships between nations in each case, on international laws and treaties, as well as on the domestic pressures that underlie those relations.

Simmons has written extensively on international markets and monetary affairs. Her 1994 book, "Who Adjusts? Domestic Sources of Foreign Economic Policy During the Interwar Years," was highly acclaimed as a penetrating look at international economic relations between World War I and World War II.

In "Who Adjusts," Simmons examines a critical period when the international gold standard that had stabilized international commerce before World War I came under assault by growing labor power and the beginnings of the welfare state. Those domestic changes strained nations' abilities to adhere to economic policies at home that internationally provided economic stability.

"Who Adjusts" was the 1995 winner of the American Political Science Association's Woodrow Wilson Award for the best book published in the United States on government, politics, or international affairs. It also was the 1995 winner of the American Political Science Association's Section on Political Economy Award for the best book or article in political economy published in the past three years.

California to Cambridge

Simmons grew up in California and received a bachelor of arts degree from the University of Redlands in political science and philosophy in 1979. After college, she spent a year studying at the University of the Philippines on a Rotary International Scholarship, an experience that she credits for piquing her interest in international relations.

When she returned, Simmons earned a master's degree in international relations from the University of Chicago in 1982, and then received a master's degree in government from Harvard in 1987. She earned a doctorate in government from Harvard in 1991.

Simmons received her first faculty appointment at Duke University in 1991, where she served as an assistant professor of political science until June 1996. She also worked at the International Monetary Fund from 1995 to 1996 in the research department of the Capital Markets and Financial Services Division.

She was appointed an associate professor of political science at the University of California, Berkeley, in 1996, a post she held until she accepted the faculty position at Harvard.

Simmons has received numerous fellowships and awards, including a Fulbright Scholarship for study at the London School of Economics, the Helen Dwight Reid Award from the American Political Science Association for the best dissertation in international relations, law, and politics written in 1990 or 1991, and, more recently, the Karl Deutsch Award in 2001 from the International Studies Association.

When teaching, Simmons said she endeavors to make her teaching relevant to her research. She said that not only helps improve her teaching, it also shows students that the subjects are relevant, real-world issues on which work is being done.

Simmons said she often gains insights from her students, both graduate and undergraduate. In fact, she traces her current interest in international law to the need to answer student questions about whether treaties and international agreements really matter.

"I usually get a great deal out of the questions students ask and the papers they write," Simmons said.

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