Articles

101 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.

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.

Ugandan Asians have their papers examined by ship's officer of the SS Haryana before they boarded the ship

AP Photo

Newspaper Article - Harvard Crimson

Kennedy School Postdoc Discusses Government-Sanctioned Mass Expulsion at Belfer Center Seminar

    Authors:
  • Cam E. Kettles
  • Jasmine Palma
  • Rysa Tahilramani
| Nov. 04, 2022

Meghan M. Garrity, an International Security Program postdoctoral fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School's Belfer Center discussed her research on government-sanctioned mass expulsion events at a virtual seminar on November 3, 2022.

Soldiers conducting a Mobile Training Team deployment in Liberia.

U.S. Army

Journal Article - Quarterly Journal: International Security

Soldiers' Dilemma: Foreign Military Training and Liberal Norm Conflict

| Spring 2022

When the U.S. military trains other states’ forces, it tries to impart liberal norms such as respect for human rights. But when liberal norms clash, these soldiers prioritize loyalty to their unit, the military, and shared goals.

Military watching the start of work on the first part of some 180 kilometers of a 5.5 meter-high metal wall

AP/Czarek Sokolowski

Magazine Article - Foreign Affairs

When Migrants Become Weapons: The Long History and Worrying Future of a Coercive Tactic

| March/April 2022

Kelly Greenhill argues that by exploiting political divisions that exist within targeted states, the threatened or actual deployment of engineered flows of migrants has long been a distressingly effective policy instrument, and it is unlikely to go away anytime soon. Unless policymakers begin to confront the forces that enable weaponized migration, the favored policy responses seem destined to increase, rather than curtail, its use.

Zimbabwe Prime Minister Robert Mugabe attended an election rally near Harare, in July 1985.

AP Photo

Journal Article - Quarterly Journal: International Security

Insurgent Armies: Military Obedience and State Formation after Rebel Victory

| Winter 2021/22

When winning rebels face intense security threats during civil wars, rebel field commanders are more likely to remain obedient during war-to-peace transitions because they have less incentive to challenge newly installed rulers and less capacity to mobilize supporters outside the postwar military hierarchy.

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.