Mailing address
Not in Residence
Kelly M. Greenhill
Research Fellow, Program on Intrastate Conflict/International Security Program
Contact:
Email: kelly_greenhill@ksg.harvard.edu
Experience
Kelly M. Greenhill is a Research Fellow in the Belfer Center's International Security and Intrastate Conflict Programs and an Assistant Professor at Tufts University. She previously served as assistant professor at Wesleyan University and a pre-/post-doctoral research fellowat Stanford's Center for Security and Cooperation and Harvard's Olin Institute for Strategic Studies. Much of her research focuses on the use of military force and what are frequently called "new security challenges." Her current projects examine: non-traditional methods of coercion; counterinsurgency; international criminal networks; and the differential effects of visual versus verbal imagery on public opinion formation and change. Greenhill holds an S.M. and a Ph.D. in political science from MIT, a C.S.S. in International Management from Harvard University, and a B.A. (with highest honors) in Political Economy and in Scandinavian Studies (double major) from the University of California at Berkeley. Her work has appeared in a variety of venues, including the journals International Security, Security Studies, and International Migration as well as in The New York Times and in briefs prepared for the U.S. Supreme Court. Greenhill's research has been supported in part by the Social Science Research Council, the MacArthur Foundation, the Mellon Foundation, and the Eisenhower Foundation. Outside of academia, she has served as a consultant to the Ford Foundation and to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), as a defense program analyst for the U.S. Department of Defense, and as an economic policy intern in the Office of Senator John F. Kerry.
AP Photo
March 2008
"Strategic Engineered Migration as a Weapon of War"
Journal Article, Civil Wars, issue 1, volume 10
By Kelly M. Greenhill, Research Fellow, Program on Intrastate Conflict/International Security Program
In recent years, it has been widely argued that a new and different armament — i.e., the refugee as weapon — has entered the world's arsenals. But just how new and different is this weapon? Can it only be used in wartime? And just how successful has been its exploitation?
December 2007
"Ten Ways to Lose at Counterinsurgency"
Journal Article, Civil Wars, The Origins and Effectiveness of Insurgent and Counterinsurgent Strategies, issue 4, volume 9
By Kelly M. Greenhill, Research Fellow, Program on Intrastate Conflict/International Security Program and Paul Staniland, Research Fellow, International Security Program/Intrastate Conflict Program
Counterinsurgency is one of the most important topics facing policymakers and scholars. Existing studies of counterinsurgency are very valuable, but sometimes adhere too strictly to sweeping dichotomies and paradigms. This article discusses ten specific mechanisms that lead counterinsurgent governments to squander their generally overwhelming power advantages. This mechanism-based approach can improve both policy and scholarly analysis.
ribena_wrath
May 28, 2007
"'24' on the Brain"
Op-Ed, The Los Angeles Times
By Kelly M. Greenhill, Research Fellow, Program on Intrastate Conflict/International Security Program
Torture is a staple on the popular show. Are Americans able to separate fact from fiction?
May 14, 2007
Human Trafficking and Migrant Smuggling: New Perspectives on an Old Problem
Policy Brief
By Kelly M. Greenhill, Research Fellow, Program on Intrastate Conflict/International Security Program
To cope with the pernicious problem of human trafficking and smuggling, Washington and its global allies need fundamentally to rethink their assumptions about the nature and size and the scope of the problem, and also how to combat it. Imperative is better information sharing among countries, agencies, and among those battling the trade in illicit goods, not just trade in humans. Only by embracing sucrecommendations can we possibly hope to replicate and build on the successes—and avoid repeating the failures—of past anti-trafficking efforts. Click here to read further about the above recommendations.
Winter 2006/07
"The Perils of Profiling: Civil War Spoilers and the Collapse of Intrastate Peace Accords"
Journal Article, International Security, issue 3, volume 31
By Kelly M. Greenhill, Research Fellow, Program on Intrastate Conflict/International Security Program and Solomon Major
When civil wars are settled through negotiations, some of the parties to the settlement often emerge as "spoilers" and prevent implementation of the accords, thereby plunging a country back into civil war. Potential spoilers will seize upon any opportunity to destroy peace if they find it in their best interest to do so. The key to deterring and defeating spoilers lies in the possession and exercise of the material power to coerce or co-opt them, rather than in the capacity to discern their true character or personality type. By preserving the conditions present at the signing of the accord, by minimizing incentives for spoilers to emerge, and by monopolizing material power, peacemakers can defeat would-be spoilers and maintain the precarious peace in countries torn by civil war.
February 17, 2006
"Don't Dumb Down the Army"
Op-Ed, The New York Times
By Kelly M. Greenhill, Research Fellow, Program on Intrastate Conflict/International Security Program
"Four decades ago, during the Vietnam War, Defense Secretary Robert S. McNamara created Project 100,000, a program intended to help the approximately 300,000 men who annually failed the Armed Forces Qualification Test for reasons of aptitude...Mr. McNamara further concluded that the best way to demonstrate that the induction of New Standards Men would prove beneficial was to keep their status hidden from their commanders. In other words, Project 100,000 was a blind experiment run on the military amid the escalation of hostilities in Southeast Asia."
