Broadly speaking, my research explores three topics. First, my work with Andrea Ruggeri and Wukki Kim explores civilians’ violent agency during conflict. Using the Korean War as a case study, we develop a theory of why civilians commit violence against other civilians. An important motivation, we argue, is the civilians’ competition to survive, which depends on the availability of armed actors’ military protection.

Second, I am interested in exploring the micro-foundations behind different modes of civilian victimisation. Killing is not the only mode of violence used against civilians. Abductions, for instance, are one of the most common forms of victimisation, and yet literature offers few explanations of it. Meanwhile, killing is not homogenous either. The logic of aerial bombings, artillery fire, and landmines is distinct from the logic of direct violence inflicted with guns and knives.

Finally, I am curious about the role of violence in authoritarian regimes. Here too, I seek to differentiate the logic behind each mode of violence. Repression can be public or discreet, lethal or non-lethal. I contend that different types of repression address different lapses in an authoritarian state’s capacity. My working paper on North Korea’s public executions, for instance, argues that the visibility of this violence resolves information asymmetries between the central government and its peripheral agents.

Publication Highlights

“State Capacity Matters in ‘the Middle’: A New Perspective on Domestic Terrorism.” (with Wukki Kim) in the Journal of Peace Research

“Are Stronger States More Humane? A Re-evaluation of ‘Exemplary Villains’.” in the Journal of Peace Research

“Do non-UN Peacekeeping Operations Work in Conjunction with UN Peacekeeping Troops to Reduce Civilian Casualties?” (with Wukki Kim and Todd Sandler) in Conflict Management and Peace Science

“Military Capacity and State-perpetrated Killings during Internal Conflicts.” in International Interactions (accepted for publication)

Working Papers (available upon request)

“The Logic of Violent Civilian Agency: Insights from the Korean War” (with Wukki Kim and Andrea Ruggeri)

“Violent Repression as Fire-alarms? Executions and On-the-spot Guidance in North Korea”

“Enforcing Violence with Visibility: Tackling Coercive Agency with Public Executions in North Korea”

“The (Partial) Effectiveness of non-UN Peacekeepers: Insights from Operation Sangaris in the Central African Republic” (with Wukki Kim)

“Logics of Indirect Violence Against Civilians in Conventional War: Territorial Contestation and Indiscriminate Shelling in Ukraine” (with Mikael Naghizadeh)

“A Double-edged Sword? The Impact of Host Government Military Presence on PKO Effectiveness.” (with Wukki Kim)

“To Shirk or not to Shirk? Survey Experiment of Peacekeeper Reactions to Local Security Threats” (with Wukki Kim and Minju Kwon)