Articles

112 Items

An old man walks past a gutted car in downtown Kabul, Thursday, June 25, 1992.

AP Photo/B.K. Bangash

Journal Article - International Security

Dealers and Brokers in Civil Wars: Why States Delegate Rebel Support to Conduit Countries

    Authors:
  • Niklas Karlén
  • Vladimir Rauta
| Spring 2023

State support to non-state armed groups outside a state’s own territory is commonly seen as a direct relationship between a state sponsor and a rebel group. But powerful states can use a third state—a dealer or broker—as a conduit for military and other support. States that fail to identify an alignment of interests with these intermediary dealers and brokers face strategic failure.

Students at left watch as student activists take positions in the Cathedral of Learning

AP/Keith Srakocic

Journal Article - Environmental Politics

Fossil Fuel Divestment and Public Climate Change Policy Preferences: An Experimental Test in Three Countries

| 2023

Divestment is a prominent strategy championed by activists to induce positive social change. For example, the current fossil fuel divestment movement includes over 1,500 institutions that control $40 trillion in assets. A primary pathway through which divestment is theorized to be effective is by influencing public beliefs and policy preferences, thus pressuring policymakers to take action. However, prior research only tests this argument via qualitative case studies. The authors assess the impact of exposure to information about fossil fuel divestment on public opinion through the use of national survey experiments in three major greenhouse gas emitters: the U.S., India, and South Africa.

A supporter of Nigeria Labour Party's, Presidential Candidate, Peter Obi, during a rally in Lagos Nigeria

AP/Sunday Alamba

Newspaper Article - Harvard Crimson

Belfer Center Fellow Discusses Nigerian Election Violence at HKS Seminar

    Authors:
  • Jina H. Choe
  • Erika K. Chung
  • Emma H. Haidar
| Nov. 14, 2022

International Security Program Fellow Megan M. Turnbull, an international affairs professor at the University of Georgia, discussed the conditions leading to election violence in Nigeria during a virtual seminar hosted by the International Security Program on November 10, 2022.

A leftist combatant of the FMLN stands guard as a U.N. helicopter lands carrying guerrilla commanders in San Jose Las Flores, Jan. 22, 1992.

AP Photo/Luis Romero

Journal Article - Quarterly Journal: International Security

A Farewell to Arms? Election Results and Lasting Peace after Civil War

| Winter 2021/22

An analysis of new data on postwar election results and remilitarization finds that losing elections does not drive belligerents to remilitarize. Instead, remilitarization is often determined by citizens’ ability to accurately understand and vote according to the postwar military balance of power.

Ugandan police and other security forces chase people off the streets to avoid unrest after all public transport was banned for two weeks to halt the spread of the new coronavirus.

AP Photo/Ronald Kabuubi

Journal Article - Quarterly Journal: International Security

Opportunistic Repression: Civilian Targeting by the State in Response to COVID-19

    Authors:
  • Donald Grasse
  • Melissa Pavlik
  • Hilary Matfess
  • Travis B. Curtice
| Fall 2021

Opportunistic repression arises when states use crises to suppress the political opposition. An examination of the relationship between COVID-19 shutdown policies and state violence against civilians in Africa, including and a subnational case study of Uganda, tests this theory.

A Soldier stand guard as voters cast their vote during the gubernatorial election in Kaduna, Nigeria, Thursday, April 28, 2011. Two states in Nigeria's Muslim north voted Thursday for state gubernatorial candidates after their polls were delayed by violence that killed at least 500 last week after the oil-rich nation's presidential election.

AP Photo/Sunday Alamba

Journal Article - Quarterly Journal: International Security

Elite Competition, Social Movements, and Election Violence in Nigeria

| Winter 2020/21

Election violence varies significantly within countries, yet how and why are undertheorized. An analysis of gubernatorial elections in Nigeria reveals the conditions under which elites recruit popular social-movement actors for preelection violence.