Dec. 4, 2019

Minerva-funded researchers' latest commentary on "How to Stabilize Ukraine Long Term? Securitize Well-Being"

What’s the best way for the United States to support Ukraine? The country is the principal arena in the high-stakes geopolitical standoff between the United States (with its NATO allies) and Russia. While a horrific and seemingly intractable war with Moscow ongoing in eastern Ukraine since 2014 has overwhelmed the government, the fledgling administration of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky also now finds itself enmeshed in American domestic politics.

Dec. 2, 2019

Scott Atran's new article on "This is Your Brain on Terrorism: The Science Behind a Death Wish"

In a series of behavioral studies of frontline combatants in Iraq and brain imaging studies of self-identified extremist in Spain, research teams found that those who are most willing to make costly sacrifices, including fighting and dying, were motivated by sacred values and shunned deliberative reasoning.

Nov. 20, 2019

Erik Gartzke's new article on "Blood and Robots: How Remotely Piloted Vehicles and Related Technologies Affect the Politics of Violence"

New technologies such as Remotely Piloted Vehicles (RPVs) make it possible to remove human beings from direct involvement in combat. How will this evolving dynamic affect the practice and purposes of political violence? Will conflict become ‘costless’ in human terms as machines replace people on the front lines or will the logic of war continue to

Nov. 14, 2019

Minerva-funded reseachers will present key findings at the Institute for Security and Conflict Studies

Minerva-funded researcher, Charles Glaser and colleagues will present key findings related to Minerva-funded project "Spheres of Influence and Regional Orders: Assessing Approaches for Responding to China's Rise" at the Institute of Security and Conflict Studies symposium on "International Order and Means of Influence as China Rises" on Thursday, September 21st.

Oct. 29, 2019

Owl in the Olive Tree post on "Explaining Great Power Status in Central Asia: Unfamiliarity and Discontent”

Minerva-funded researcher Eric Mcglinchey and Marlene Laruelle's Owl in the Olive Tree blog post on "Explaining Great Power Status in Central Asia: Unfamiliarity and Discontent”. Great powers see Central Asia as a region where they can test strategies for building a post-Cold War international order. Of the great powers, Russia and China are the most influential in the region. Washington’s soft power, despite the continued United States presence in neighboring Afghanistan, trails far behind…

Oct. 10, 2019

Owl in the Olive Tree post on "Carrot or Stick? Development Aid and the Implementation of Peace Agreements by Recipient Governments"

Minerva-funded researcher Paul Huth and Deniz Cil's Owl in the Olive Tree blog post on " Carrot or Stick? Development Aid and the Implementation of Peace Agreements by Recipient Governments". The implementation of peace agreements following civil wars is a lengthy and complex process in which levels of implementation vary greatly (see Figure 1).

Sept. 24, 2019

Future Directions in Social Science

The Future Directions Workshop series, sponsored by the Basic Research Office in the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, seeks to examine emerging research areas that-in the natural and formal sciences-are most likely to transform future technology capabilities and-in the social sciences-innovatively inform about

Aug. 27, 2019

Announcement of the 2019-2020 Cohort of the Jennings Randolph Peace Scholar Dissertation Fellows

The Department of Defense Minerva Research Initiative is pleased to announce the 2019-2020 cohort of the Jennings Randolph Peace Scholar Dissertation Fellows. This year, over 110 applicants from 70 U.S. universities applied for this prestigious award. The dissertations chosen for the Peace Scholar Fellowship show the greatest potential to advance

Aug. 13, 2019

Owl in the Olive Tree post on " The Emergence of the Chinese Techno-Security State: United States-China Great Power Competition in Comparative Historical Context"

Minerva-funded researcher Tai Ming Cheung's Owl in the Olive Tree blog post on "The Emergence of the Chinese Techno-Security State: United States-China Great Power Competition in Comparative Historical Context".The intensifying great power competition between the United States and China is frequently referred to as a “New Cold War” because of the

July 26, 2019

Mia Bloom's New Study Entitled: The Jihadi Archive - A Database of Terrorist Tactics and Techniques

The Department of Defense is funding a new grant to expand research on the inner working of Jihadi Terrorist groups and analyze their encrypted propaganda. The original project, Documenting the Virtual Caliphate (DVC), collected and archived thousands of pieces of ISIS propaganda, images, memes, and breaking news.