Research
Book Project
My book project examines the phenomenon of military involvement in the economy in the form of management and ownership of profit-making economic enterprises and studies its consequences for conflict processes and state repression. My project offers an original cross-national data on the emergence and level of military involvement in the economy from 1950 to 2019.
Military involvement in the economy is a common phenomena yet efforts to systematically analyze the causes and consequences of such involvements have remained minimal. Running household appliances factories, clothing lines, transportation agencies, mines, banks, hotels, bars, etc., are indeed unrelated to national security and are far removed from regular roles assigned to militaries. Such involvements have further implications for civil-military relations, the economy, military professionalism and effectiveness, and state repression. My book project breaks new ground on this very real phenomenon, asking why and how militaries get involved in the economy and what implications such involvements have for domestic conflict, state repression, and military effectiveness.
My article on the causes of the emergence of military involvement in the economy has received the 2021 “Patricia Weitsman Award” from the International Security Studies Section of the International Studies Association (ISA), the 2021 best paper award from the Inter-University Seminar on Armed Forces and Society, and is published at the Journal of Conflict Resolution. You can read the article here.
Furthermore, my article on the impact of military involvement in the economy on domestic conflict has received the 2020 “Stuart A. Bremer Award” from the Peace Science Society (International).
My book project feeds into a broader research agenda which aims to further explore the consequences of military economic activities and variation among cases with regard to the extent militaries manage to expand their economic involvement over time.
Other Research
My ongoing projects cover issues regarding institutional changes to the security sectors (military and police institutions); UN peacekeeping missions and civil-military relations in post-conflict societies; the impact of peacekeeping experiences on security forces personnel’s attitudes towards the use of violence; and security forces violence against civilians.
As a research fellow at the Gender and the Security Sector Lab at Cornell University, I work on ELSIE Initiative, in cooperation with DCAF-Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance, a project that aims to increase the meaningful participation of uniformed women (police, military, gendarmerie) in UN peace operations and to help overcome barriers women face pre and post-deployment. I am the lead author of one of the ongoing projects of the Gender and the Security Sector Lab and coauthor on other projects. The projects aim to understand the effect of socialization on security forces’ attitudes toward the use of violence as well as exploring the institutional differences (police vs military institutions) in explaining such attitudes. I have also contributed to the DCAF Policy Briefs that address salient issue areas in the MOWIP assessments.