Watson Institute at Brown University
Africa Initiative
Robert Blair

Robert Blair

robert_blair@brown.edu
+1 401 863 9728
111 Thayer Street, Room 338

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Robert Blair

Arkadij Eisler Goldman Sachs Associate Professor of Political Science and International and Public Affairs

Areas of Interest: Peacekeeping, statebuilding, security sector reform, quantitative and experimental methods.

Biography

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. Blair has conducted fieldwork in Colombia, Liberia, Uganda, Cote d’Ivoire, and the US, with support from the US State Department, the National Science Foundation, the Folke Bernadotte Academy, the International Growth Centre, and the Hewlett Foundation, among other donors. He has 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. 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

“Little Evidence That Military Policing Reduces Crime or Improves Human Security” (with Michael Weintraub). 2022. Nature Human Behaviour, forthcoming

“UN Peacekeeping and Democratization in Conflict-Affected Countries” (with Jessica Di Salvatore and Hannah Smidt). 2022. American Political Science Review, forthcoming

“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

“Policing Ethnicity: Lab-in-the-Field Evidence on Cooperation, Discrimination, and Ethnic Balancing in the Liberian National Police” (with Kyle Beardsley, Michael Gilligan, and Sabrina Karim). 2022. Quarterly Journal of Political Science 17(2): 141-181

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"