Jonah Schulhofer-Wohl
Subfield: IR, Comparative Politics, Middle East, Security Studies
Dissertation Title: Dynamics of Civil Wars: The Causes and Consequences of Subsidies to Armed Groups
Advisors: Stathis N. Kalyvas and Nicholas Sambanis
Dissertation and Research Summary:
My dissertation examines why civil wars vary in length. Its central
argument, set out in a formal model, is that the incentives for external
powers to interfere in civil wars interact with the internal strategic
environment to create circumstances under which external support subsidizes
the warring internal actors, expanding the range of conditions under
which they decide to continue fighting. I test the theory using material
from 120 hours of interviews I conducted in Arabic with former combatants
in the civil war in Lebanon (1975-1990), cross-country statistical
evidence, and focused comparisons of other civil wars. Ongoing research
projects include comparative studies of in-fighting between allies
in civil wars and variation in armed groups' operational goals in
fighting, and a household survey on local-level warfare and conflict
termination in Lebanon. Other research interests include politics,
development, and economic growth in the Middle East.
Personal Web Page: http://www.princeton.edu/~jschulho/
