Welcome.
I’m the Arkadij Eisler Goldman Sachs Associate Professor of Political Science and International and Public Affairs at Brown University. My research focuses on international intervention and the consolidation of state authority after civil war, with an emphasis on the rule of law and security institutions. I am director of the Civil Conflict and Democratic Erosion Lab at Brown and co-founder and co-director of the Democratic Erosion Consortium, which spans more than 70 universities in the US, UK, Ireland, Italy, Germany, Israel, Turkey, Romania, South Korea, Australia, and the Philippines. The consortium combines research, teaching, and civic and policy engagement to address threats to democracy in the US and abroad.
Some of the questions that interest me:
- How to restore citizens’ trust in the police and other security institutions after years of state absence, dysfunction, and abuse?
- How to predict and prevent local violence during transitions to national peace?
- How to identify and neutralize threats to democratic norms and institutions?
I’ve conducted fieldwork on these and related questions in Colombia, Liberia, Uganda, Cote d’Ivoire, and the US, with support from the National Science Foundation, the Folke Bernadotte Academy, the International Growth Centre, and the Hewlett Foundation, among other donors. My research is published or forthcoming in Science, Nature Human Behaviour, American Political Science Review, American Journal of Political Science, Journal of Politics, British Journal of Political Science, Quarterly Journal of Political Science, Comparative Political Studies, World Politics, International Organization, International Studies Quarterly, and other venues. My book, Peacekeeping, Policing, and the Rule of Law after Civil War, was published in 2020 with Cambridge University Press.
I’ve also worked in various capacities for USAID, the UN Office of Rule of Law and Security Institutions, the Political Instability Task Force, Freedom House, and the Small Arms Survey. I hold a B.A. from Brown, an M.Sc in conflict studies from the Universidad de los Andes in Bogotá, Colombia, and a Ph.D in political science from Yale University.
Outside of academia I’m a 3rd-degree black belt in Taekwondo.
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