What is the role of political behavior in shaping the dynamics of conflict? World Politics models of civil conflict often overlook political behavior measures and mechanisms. In this work, I draw on American Politics research on domestic politics, trust and information sharing, …
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This dissertation explores the role of the Guatemalan National Police, from 1954 to 1985, as an institution that in the context of the country’s armed conflict and dirty war, became a key part of the machinery of brutality and violence of the Guatemalan State. The work approache…
Do statebuilding activities decrease insurgency? Since 2006 General Petraeus's mantra has been that you cannot kill or capture your way out of a complex insurgency. Instead of bullets money spent on development projects, like those funded by the Commander's Emergency Response Pr…
How do states maintain their authority given that even weak non-state groups are now capable of challenging states by resorting to irregular warfare? In Part I of the dissertation, I propose that one of the ways in which states pursue internal security is by recruiting civilians…
Current research available in the literature explored three main lines of inquiry (political or policy, military, and doctrinal) into the problem of both the lack of implementation and unsuccessful implementation of the U.S.-led Iraqi counterinsurgency campaign. This research wa…
Managing coastal resources is challenging in the best of circumstances. Bringing science and policy together to manage coastal resources effectively for the purpose of orchestrating population-centric counterinsurgency operations in the midst of war is Herculean. From a military…
In this dissertation I examine why some development projects have succeeded while others failed to complete during the post-2001 Afghan insurgency. Through disaggregated statistical analysis, I find that interactions of location, time, ethnic heterogeneity (Cederman et al. 2009)…
Given the U.S. military's current engagement with insurgencies in Iraq and Afghanistan, it is possible and prudent to test the effectiveness of U.S. counterinsurgency doctrine in practice. This article tests the predictive power of access to essential services, unemployment, per…
This dissertation presents and evaluates the use of geographic techniques for understanding the role of environmental variables as they relate to the odds of settlements being targeted for attack within a civil conflict. Geospatial technologies are demonstrated for their utility…
Rural access infrastructural development projects in post 2001 Afghanistan represent a vital component of the economic recovery of the state. This thesis examines four of the most prevalent of these projects implemented by the World Bank, and in doing so substantiates the signif…
This dissertation critically explores military innovation in counterinsurgency in the American experience. It examines innovations in the operational strategy of the U.S. military in the Philippines War from 1898-1902, and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq from 2001 to present. T…
The initial hypothesis of this dissertation was that Afghan insurgents' attacks on Afghan civilians have lowered popular confidence in the Afghan government and its institutions. The goal of the insurgents has been to convince Afghans that their local, provincial, and national g…
This thesis reviews the history of Afghanistan and the current counterinsurgency strategy. Military and political leaders ignored cultural and religious affairs inherent to the country in their planning of the invasion after the events of 9-11. This paper goes on to highlight th…
Over the past decade British troops have been stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan as part of what was previously called the 'war on terror'. During this period reports have emerged of British soldiers engaging in sexual abuse against local detainees, the killing of innocent Iraqi …
This PhD thesis examines the status of ‘expert knowledge’ in the history of U.S. asymmetric, or ‘counterinsurgency’ (COIN), warfare during the last century. The historical rise of expert influence has so far been neglected in the study of wars within the field of International R…
This thesis analyses the United States Marine Corps’ counterinsurgency strategy in Vietnam between March 1965 and November 1968, filling a major gap in the existing literature by forensically examining the primary source records maintained by the United States Marines to produce…
This dissertation is an examination of the UK's counter-terrorism policies and practices that have been adopted since the attacks of 9/11 in the United States. Using a theoretical framework of 'power' and 'hegemony' to guide the research, and an investigative research approach, …
According to conventional wisdom winning hearts and minds is one of the most important goals for defeating terrorism. However, despite repeated claims about U.S. efforts to build popular support as part of the war on terror during the first seven years after 9/11, a steady strea…
The premise of most Western thinking on counterinsurgency is that success depends on establishing a perception of legitimacy among local populations. The path to legitimacy is often seen as the improvement of governance in the form of effective and efficient administration of go…