What explains radical land reforms in developing countries? While existing literature primarily attributes land reform to domestic factors, we introduce an international dimension by examining how ...

For decades, the United States has sought to prevent its allies from acquiring nuclear weapons. To this end, the United States has attempted to reassure those allies that it is committed to defendi...

United Nations peacekeeping is usually evaluated by its effects on host-country conflict, yet it also constitutes one of the world’s most extensive institutions of military cooperation. This articl...

The question of whether trade agreements are “stepping stones” or “stumbling blocks” to multilateral trade liberalization is not a new one; however, the empirical methods and the quality of the dat...

This paper investigates China’s coercive diplomacy during the 2022 Taiwan Strait Crisis. Using quantitative natural language processing techniques, we unveil the key emotional, operational, and sem...

The long-standing liberal hypothesis that an increase in trade ties contributes to the promotion of interstate peace is repeatedly supported by much research. I question this finding by arguing tha...

Research suggests that mediation can increase government violence against civilians, but the conditions shaping this effect remain insufficiently specified. Drawing on prospect theory, I argue that...

As the world becomes increasingly reliant on interconnected digital infrastructure, the urgency to understand and manage cyber conflict increases. Policy-makers have long sought to translate concep...

In crisis, technological threats often present as unfamiliar to non-specialists. Today, however, emerging AI capabilities introduce distinct uncertainties for the decision-maker that extend beyond ...

This special issue on empirical approaches to cyber conflict aims to “prime the pump” in advancing how researchers measure and interpret cyber conflict dynamics. We present a carefully selected set...

With growing interest in and attention to cybersecurity, pundits, media outlets, and policymakers are interested in meaningful insights about the nature of cyber conflict. However, the challenges t...

The politics of how nations design their militaries when they start developing new technologies is a critical question in international relations as it has implications on military effectiveness, c...

International alliances have incorporated cybersecurity within their collective security mandates, but would these commitments be honored if invoked? Key characteristics of cyber conflict, includin...

Cyber power is altering the nature of domestic audience costs. By exploiting voters’ captivation with cyber conflict, leaders can now de-escalate crises without having to worry about suffering dome...

Conflicting narratives about who is responsible for a cyberattack are often thought to create uncertainty about the aggressor’s identity, which in turn could lead to greater restraint in state resp...

In the past few years, scholars have focused on how states use Global Value Chains (GVCs) to weaponize economic and political interdependencies. However, the unintended political consequences stemm...

How can nuclear pursuits be effectively reduced? Existing research primarily focuses on traditional policy instruments such as security guarantees and coercion, despite their inherent limitations. ...

International political economy scholarship has documented that non-traditional barriers to international trade have proliferated since the 1970s. Contemporary explanations attribute these trends t...

Under what conditions do sanction-sending states choose to form coalitions? Do the same determinants that affect military sanction coalition formation affect how coercive economic coalitions are fo...

How do individuals respond to the threat of economic sanctions? Under what conditions do the target population demand policy concessions, and when do they rally behind their beleaguered leader? We ...

Studies of secession typically focus on domestic factors that produce independence movements, such as the role of ethnic divides or the concentration of material resources. But motivations for sece...

This research note introduces a novel methodology for quantifying naming and shaming practices in the context of women’s rights, utilizing a corpus of 10,760 human rights reports from the US State ...

How does trade competition affect support for environmental protection? On the one hand, import shocks can dampen support for environmental protection, as international trade can lead to a race to ...

A growing body of research indicates that women are increasingly involved in suicide attacks. These studies suggest that women, due to their seemingly innocent appearance, can more effectively targ...

This study investigates the relationship between terrorist credit claims and government counterterrorism efforts, focusing on the impact of claims on group survival. Using data from the Extended Da...

What explains why some splinter groups are highly violent, capable, and durable, while others are not? Although existing scholarship provides important insights into the causes and consequences of ...

Which cities become arenas for violent contestation after war? A growing literature has documented how conflict-related violence often continues after the formal end of armed conflict, and also tha...

A number of theories about the effectiveness, design, and targeting of economic sanctions highlight public perceptions of economic sanctions as an important factor influencing foreign policy decisi...

What are the international and domestic effects of low credibility false flag incidents? One way in which wars occasionally start (as in the case of the 2022 Ukraine war) is with false flag inciden...

Despite the coexistence of three trends—increased economic integration, a dramatic reduction in biodiversity, and the implementation of national policies to reduce extinction risks—we know little a...

Does corruption within the police and military increase the likelihood that government security forces will be associated with sexual violence against civilians? I conduct a cross-national analysis...

Can money and connections buy international influence and improve a state’s international status? This paper argues that outward foreign direct investment (FDI) by a state is associated with the im...

Rebels often provide welfare services to civilians to build public support for their cause. However, are some rebels more likely to provide these than others? We argue that ethnicity and insurgency...

How does concern with reputation affect a leader’s decision on whether to comply with an economic sanction demand? There is limited scholarship unpacking the leader’s responses to sanctions. In thi...

How do private military contractors (PMCs) influence the perpetration of sexual violence? In providing the first empirical assessment of PMCs’ impact on conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV), I a...

There is a growing amount of evidence suggesting that despite international organizations’ efforts to moderate hierarchical relations, power relations shape their actions and policies. Research sho...