The Watson Institute awarded Birkelund funds to five faculty research projects during the 2023 - 2024 academic year. Projects ranged from studying civilian-military coordination during the pandemic to creating a study group between Brown students and faculty, and quilombola communities in Brazil.
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Robert Blair
Arkadij Eisler Goldman Sachs Associate Professor of Political Science and International and Public Affairs
111 Thayer Street, Room 338
Areas of Expertise
Criminal Justice, Democracy & Elections, Ethnic Conflict & Civil War, Human Rights, Law Enforcement & Policing, Political Economy
Areas of Interest
Peacekeeping, statebuilding, security sector reform, quantitative and experimental methods
Biography
Robert Blair is the Arkadij Eisler Goldman Sachs Associate Professor of Political Science and International and Public Affairs at Brown University. His research focuses on international intervention and the consolidation of state authority after civil war, with an emphasis on rule of law and security institutions. He is also co-founder and co-director of the Democratic Erosion Consortium, a multi-country initiative that addresses the causes and consequences of democratic deconsolidation through a combination of teaching, research, and civic and policy engagement. He has conducted fieldwork on these and related topics in Colombia, Liberia, Uganda, Côte d'Ivoire, and the US. He has also worked in various capacities for the UN Office of Rule of Law and Security Institutions, the US Central Intelligence Agency’s Political Instability Task Force, USAID, Freedom House, and the Small Arms Survey. He holds a B.A. from Brown and a Ph.D in political science from Yale University. His 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. His book, Peacekeeping, Policing, and the Rule of Law after Civil War, was published in 2020 with Cambridge University Press.
Research
Robert Blair's 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. He is also co-founder and co-director of the Democratic Erosion Consortium, which combines research, teaching, and civic and policy engagement to address threats to democracy in the US and abroad.
Publications
“UN Peacekeeping and Democratization in Conflict-Affected Countries” (with Jessica Di Salvatore and Hannah Smidt). 2023. American Political Science Review 117(4): 1308-1326
“Little Evidence That Military Policing Reduces Crime or Improves Human Security” (with Michael Weintraub). 2023. Nature Human Behaviour 7(6): 861-873
“Preventing Rebel Resurgence after Civil War: A Field Experiment in Security and Justice Provision in Rural Colombia” (with Manuel Moscoso, Andrés Vargas, and Michael Weintraub). 2022. American Political Science Review 116(4): 1258-1277
“Civil War and Citizens’ Demand for the State: An Empirical Test of Hobbesian Theory.” 2022. British Journal of Political Science 52(4): 1748-1768
“The Promise and Pitfalls of Conflict Prediction: Evidence from Colombia and Indonesia” (with Samuel Bazzi, Christopher Blattman, Oeindrila Dube, Matthew Gudgeon, and Richard Peck). 2022. Review of Economics & Statistics 104(4): 764-779
“When Do UN Peacekeeping Operations Implement Their Mandates?”(with Jessica Di Salvatore and Hannah Smidt). 2022. American Journal of Political Science 66(3): 664-680
“Foreign Aid and Soft Power: Great Power Competition in Africa in the Early 21st Century” (with Robert Marty and Philip Roessler). 2022. British Journal of Political Science 52(3): 1355-1376
Teaching
POLS1440: "Security, Governance, and Development in Africa"
POLS1820X: "Democratic Erosion"
POLS1824: "Post-Conflict Politics"
POLS 2110: "Proseminar in Comparative Politics"
POLS2590: "Quantitative Research Methods II"
Recent News
News from Watson
New policy labs will 'turbo-charge' Watson research programs
Watson Policy Labs, a new initiative of the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs, will enhance the link between teaching, research and public outreach by addressing specific policy issues through a combination of faculty research, student training, research-based courses and public outreach.
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Eight Watson Institute Master of Public Affairs students were named Director's Fellows in September. Fellows spent the fall semester working on projects in faculty-led research groups at Watson and in Watson centers.
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This year six Watson research proposals were awarded a total of $121,486 in Birkelund Funds. The funds are used to support faculty research — especially in the early stages — and to encourage student engagement in research.
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News from Watson
Fall 2023 UTRA grants create research opportunities at Watson
The Watson Institute funded $10,000 in Undergraduate Research and Teaching Awards to support Brown students collaborating with Watson faculty on research projects during the fall 2023 semester.
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News from Watson
Researchers find little evidence military policing reduces crime
A team of researchers led by Brown University Associate Professor of Political Science and International and Public Affairs Rob Blair studied a crime intervention in Cali, Colombia, and found little evidence to support the idea that military policing reduces crime.
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