Research
My research looks at how domestic political considerations shape the conduct of international interventions in fragile settings. I also conduct research on how foreign policy shapes public opinion in democracies, specifically as related to intervention in civil wars abroad.
Below are some of my latest projects. For a complete listing, please visit my research page.
How Do Religious Appeals Shape Intergroup Tolerance and Radicalization? Evidence from Burkina Faso
With Allison Grossman and Niloufer Siddiqui, 2022.
In this paper, we consider whether pro-peace religious messaging can promote social cohesion among school-age respondents in Burkina Faso.
Unintended Consequences: Reconsidering the Effects of UN Peacekeeping on State-sponsored Violence
With Danielle N. Villa, 2022. International Peacekeeping. 29 (4): pp. 551-623. Part of Forum on the United Nations at 75.
This paper challenges theoretical and empirical arguments about peacebuilding effectiveness that put the state at the center of United Nations peace operations.
Peacekeeping and the Enforcement of Intergroup Cooperation: Evidence from Mali
Journal of Politics, 84(1): 194-208.
Demonstrates that the presence of peacekeepers makes individuals more optimistic about the risks of engagement and the likelihood that members of out-groups will reciprocate cooperation.
Why Share? An Analysis of the Causes of Power-Sharing after Conflict
Journal of Peace Research, 58(2): 248-262.
This article argues that elites create power-sharing institutions when the most significant threat to their political power comes from an outside group as opposed to from within their own group.
Books
I am writing two books examining the process of building peace in a rapidly changing world.
Local Peace, International Builders: How the UN Builds Peace from the Bottom Up
Explains the conditions under which UN peacekeeping operations promote peaceful interactions between civilian communities in fragile settings.
Patrolling the Commons: Peacekeeping and Conflict in a Climate-Changed World (with Patrick Hunnicutt)
Offers a new analytical framework, novel data from multiple fragile settings, and a multi-method research design to investigate the role of UN peacekeeping operations, an oft-proposed tool for mitigate climate-driven conflict.
I direct the Data-driven Analysis of Peace Project (DAPP), a lab that brings together researchers conducting work various topics related to international security, conflict processes, and peacebuilding.
