Political Science
Our political science faculty research a wide range of topics that are both local and global, including political behavior, campaigns and elections, international security, global terrorism, U.S. constitutional law, judicial politics, environmental politics, social movements, immigration, women and politics, South Asian security, Russian politics, globalization, and national security.
Submissions from 2025
Actors and Institutions, Oheneba A. Boateng
Submissions from 2024
Election reform and campaign finance: Did Alaska's top 4 nonpartisan primaries and ranked-choice general elections affect political spending?, Zachary Albert, Robert G. Boatright, Lane Cuthbert, Adam Eichen, Wouter van Erve, Raymond J. La Raja, and Meredith Rolfe
Africa's long fight for humanitarian self-sufficiency, Oheneba A. Boateng
Reform and retrenchment: A century of efforts to fix primary elections, Robert G. Boatright
Public opinion on reforming U.S. primaries, Robert G. Boatright, Caroline J. Tolbert, and Nathan K. Micatka
Beyond ‘Saving Strangers’: Revisiting R2P as an Accountability Mechanism, Michael J. Butler
Mediation is What Authoritarian States Make of it: Assessing the Role of National Identity Consolidation in Chinese and Turkish Diplomacy in Russia’s War Against Ukraine, Michael J. Butler
Reconstructing the responsibility to protect: From humanitarian intervention to human security, Michael J. Butler
Ripeness obscured: inductive lessons from Türkiye’s (transactional) mediation in the Russia–Ukraine war, Michael J. Butler
Introduction: A feminist international relations approach to the Middle East/North Africa, Yasmin Chilmeran, Summer Forester, Valentine Moghadam, and Ora Szekely
Dancing around gender expression and sex talk: LGBTQ+ asylum policy in the United States, Cyril Ghosh
Russia in a changing climate, Debra Javeline, Robert Orttung, Graeme Robertson, Richard Arnold, Andrew Barnes, Laura Henry, Edward Holland, Mariya Omelicheva, Peter Rutland, Edward Schatz, Caress Schenk, Andrei Semenov, Valerie Sperling, Lisa McIntosh Sundstrom, Mikhail Troitskiy, Judith Twigg, and Susanne Wengle
All Candidate Primaries, Open Primaries, and Voter Turnout, Nathan Micatka, Caroline J. Tolbert, and Robert G. Boatright
Unpacking ‘Traditional Values’ in Russia’s Conservative Turn: Gender, Sexuality and the Soviet Legacy, Alexandra Novitskaya, Valerie Sperling, Lisa McIntosh Sundstrom, and Janet Elise Johnson
CRISES: COVID- 19 and Russia’s war on Ukraine, Ella Rossman, Valerie Sperling, and Paula M. Pickering
Gender, germs, and governors: political masculinities and leadership in the US during the COVID-19 pandemic, Valerie Sperling and Robert G. Boatright
Russia, domestic violence, and barriers to sex discrimination cases at the European Court of Human Rights, 1998–2021, Valerie Sperling and Lisa Mcintosh Sundstrom
White Racial Resentment and Gender Attitudes: An Enduring Connection or an Artifact of the 2016 Election?, Michael G. Strawbridge, Heather Silber Mohamed, and Jennifer Lucas
Women’s engagement with the Syrian opposition: Pathways, perspectives, and participation, Ora Szekely
Submissions from 2023
The role of Donald Trump in the 2022 Republican Congressional primaries, Robert G. Boatright
The Political Consequences of Racialized Ethnic Identities, Kimberly Cardenas, Heather Silber Mohamed, and Melissa R. Michelson
Securing white democracy: Guns and the politics of whiteness, Danielle Hanley and John McMahon
Social Welfare Policy in Post-Transition Chile: Social Democratic or Neoliberal?, Paul W. Posner
Authoritarian Policing Under Xi Jinping, Suzanne E. Scoggins
Exceptional Inclusion: Understanding the PKK’s Gender Policy, Ora Szekely
Submissions from 2022
Doing Good while Killing: Why Some Insurgent Groups Provide Community Services, Victor Asal, Shawn Flanigan, and Ora Szekely
Choral Inclination: Coming Together as the World Falls Apart, Danielle Hanley
Buen Vivir under Correa: The Rhetoric of Participatory Democracy, the Reality of Rentier Populism, Paul W. Posner
Politics, law, and policing in reform era China, Suzanne E. Scoggins
Legacies of Mistrust?, Heather Silber Mohamed and Erin Heidt-Forsythe
The Evolution of Civic Activism in Contemporary Russia, Lisa Mc Intosh Sundstrom, Laura A. Henry, and Valerie Sperling
Submissions from 2021
Factional Conflict and Independent Expenditures in the 2018 Democratic House Primaries, Robert Boatright and Zachary Albert
Who pays for populism?, Robert G. Boatright
Mixed signals: what Putin says about gender equality, Janet Elise Johnson, Alexandra Novitskaya, Valerie Sperling, and Lisa Mc Intosh Sundstrom
COVID-19 and Fieldwork: Challenges and Solutions, Peter Krause, Ora Szekely, Mia Bloom, Fotini Christia, Sarah Zukerman Daly, Chappell Lawson, Zoe Marks, Aidan Milliff, Kacie Miura, Richard Nielsen, William Reno, Emil Aslan Souleimanov, and Aliyu Zakayo
Gender, Race, Ethnicity, and the Racialization of Attitudes Toward Descriptive Representation, Jennifer C. Lucas and Heather Silber Mohamed
Reevaluating the Chávez Regime: Participatory Democracy or Rentier Populism?, Paul W. Posner
Propaganda and the Police: The Softer Side of State Control in China, Suzanne E. Scoggins
Submissions from 2020
Primary Election Timing and Voter Turnout, Robert G. Boatright, Vincent G. Moscardelli, and Clifford D. Vickrey
Choosing Choice: How Gender and Religiosity Shape Abortion Attitudes among Latinos, Mirya Holman, Erica Podrazik, and Heather Silber Mohamed
‘Bad hombres’? An examination of identities in U.S. media coverage of immigration, Heather Silber Mohamed and Emily M. Farris
Seeking better judgment: LGBT discrimination cases in Russia and at the European Court of Human Rights, Lisa Mc Intosh Sundstrom and Valerie Sperling
Fighting about Women: Ideologies of Gender in the Syrian Civil War, Ora Szekely
Gender, wars of globalization, and humanitarian interventions since the end of the cold war, Kristen P. Williams
Submissions from 2019
Retrenchment or reform? Changes in primary election laws, 1928–70, Robert G. Boatright
Adaptive Peacemaking in Protracted Conflicts: IGAD Mediation in the Second Sudanese Civil War, Michael J. Butler
Conclusion Securitization, revisited: Revealed insights, future directions, Michael J. Butler
Learning from success and failure, Michael J. Butler
Managing or resolving? Defining the deal, Michael J. Butler
Negotiation and mediation in the hard(est) cases, Michael J. Butler
Searching for an exit: The effects of context, process and structure on crisis negotiation, Michael J. Butler
Securitization revisited: Contemporary applications and insights, Michael J. Butler
Introduction Revisiting securitization and the 'constructivist turn' in security studies, Michael J. Butler and Zena Wolf
Submissions from 2018
Party funding in the United States, Robert G. Boatright
Context, Process, and Structure: Correlates of Conflict Management in Foreign Policy Crisis, Michael J. Butler
Embryonic politics: Attitudes about abortion, stem cell research, and IVF, Heather Silber Mohamed
Policing Modern China, Suzanne E. Scoggins
Building the Russian state: Institutional crisis and the quest for democratic governance, Valerie Sperling
Introduction: The domestic and international obstacles to state-building in Russia, Valerie Sperling
Submissions from 2017
Labour market flexibility, employment and inequality: lessons from Chile, Paul W. Posner
Submissions from 2016
Independent expenditures in congressional primaries after Citizens United: Implications for interest groups, incumbents and political parties, Robert G. Boatright, Michael J. Malbin, and Brendan Glavin
Women, gender equality, and post-conflict transformation: Lessons learned, implications for the future, Joyce P. Kaufman and Kristen Williams
Laboring Under Chávez: Populism for the Twenty-first Century, Paul W. Posner
China's unhappy police, Suzanne E. Scoggins and Kevin J. O'Brien
Putin's macho personality cult, Valerie Sperling
The "new" sexism: Images of Russian women during the transition, Valerie Sperling
A friend in need: The impact of the Syrian civil war on Syria’s clients (A principal–agent approach), Ora Szekely
Proto-State Realignment and the Arab Spring, Ora Szekely
The politics of militant group survival in the Middle East: Resources, relationships, and resistance, Ora Szekely
Bosnia, women, and gender in a post-Dayton world, Kristen P. Williams
Women and war, Kristen P. Williams
Submissions from 2015
Introduction: Regulation and deregulation of political finance, Robert G. Boatright
The deregulatory moment?: A comparative perspective on changing campaign finance laws, Robert G. Boatright
U.S. Interest groups in a deregulated campaign finance system, Robert G. Boatright
Women, DDR and post-conflict transformation: Lessons from the cases of Bosnia and South Africa, Joyce P. Kaufman and Kristen Williams
Why do secondary states choose to support, follow or challenge?, Steven E. Lobell, Neal G. Jesse, and Kristen P. Williams
The purpose of Putin's machismo, Valerie Sperling
Doing Well by Doing Good: Understanding Hamas's Social Services as Political Advertising, Ora Szekely
Submissions from 2014
Congressional primary elections, Robert G. Boatright
Russian feminist perspectives on Pussy Riot, Valerie Sperling
The costs of avoiding transitional justice: Lessons from Lebanon, Ora Szekely
Submissions from 2013
Gender ideologies and forms of contentious mobilization in the Middle East, Victor Asal, Richard Legault, Ora Szekely, and Jonathan Wilkenfeld
Campaign finance in the 2012 election, Robert G. Boatright
Getting primaried: The changing politics of congressional primary challenges, Robert G. Boatright
The voice of American business: The U.S. chamber of commerce and the 2010 elections, Robert G. Boatright
Teaching redistricting: Letting the people draw the lines for the people's house, Robert G. Boatright, Nicholas M. Giner, and James R. Gomes
Every Picture Tells a Story: The 2010 Round of Congressional Redistricting in New England, Robert G. Boatright, James R. Gomes, Diana Evans, John Baughman, Nicholas M. Giner, Dante J. Scala, Amelia Najjar, and Nicholas Rossi
Submissions from 2012
Fundraising—continuity and change, Robert G. Boatright
The end of the reform era? Campaign finance retrenchment in the United States and Canada, Robert G. Boatright
Selling a ‘Just’ war: Framing, legitimacy, and US military intervention, Michael J. Butler
Ten years after: (Re) assessing neo-trusteeship and UN state-building in Timor-Leste, Michael J. Butler
Targeted assistance and social capital: Housing policy in chile's neoliberal democracy, Paul W. Posner
Nashi devushki: Gender and political youth activism in Putin's and Medvedev's Russia, Valerie Sperling
Hezbollah's Survival: Resources and Relationships, Ora Szekely
Submissions from 2011
The place of Quebec in Canadian interest group federalism, Robert G. Boatright
Submissions from 2010
The state of experimental research in IR: An analytical survey, Natalie Florea Hudson and Michael J. Butler
Submissions from 2009
Cross-border interest group learning in Canada and the United States, Robert G. Boatright
Interest group adaptations to campaign finance reform in Canada and the United States, Robert G. Boatright
Gender and negotiation: Some experimental findings from an international negotiation simulation, Mark A. Boyer, Brian Urlacher, Natalie Florea Hudson, Anat Niv-Solomon, Laura L. Janik, Michael J. Butler, Scott W. Brown, and Andri Ioannou
International conflict management, Michael J. Butler
