🚨 Call for Participants 🚨 We're organizing a roundtable for #APSA2025 in Vancouver on #Fieldwork in Conflict Zones. Focusing on the evolving Middle East dynamics (e.g., #Gaza, #Syria), we'll discuss challenges, innovations, & ethics in fieldwork. Interested or have ideas? LMK!

The return and reintegration of Iraqis with perceived ISIL affiliation is crucial for post-conflict peacebuilding and stabilization. Yet, these returnees face steep barriers, Mara Revkin @mararevkin.bsky.social Benjamin Krick & Raed Aldulaimi find in their United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research report⬇️ unidir.org/publication/re…

Very excited for this discussion on prospects for peace & justice in post-Assad Syria Duke University on Feb. 11 with 3 of my favorite experts on human rights, humanitarian aid & civil society: Rana B. Khoury, Sara Kayyali & Imad Alhajj ☀️ (Sanford School of Public Policy alum!), co-moderated with Adam Mestyan:

Grateful to the editors & reviewers International Organization for a very constructive review process & conditional acceptance of "Civilian Harm & Military Legitimacy in War: Evidence from the Battle of Mosul in Iraq" coauthored with Benjamin Krick & Jonathan Petkun: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cf… Duke Law

Just published on APSR First View: "Out-Competing Rivals: Armed Group Governance and Civilian Attitudes in Colombia" by Erica DeBruin (Erica De Bruin), Gabriella Levy (Gabriella Levy), Livia Schubiger (Livia I. Schubiger) & Michael Weintraub (Michael Weintraub). cambridge.org/core/journals/…

Grateful for the opportunity to write w/ Oona Hathaway Azmat Khan "The Dangerous Rise of `Dual-Use' Objects in War" for The Yale Law Journal informed by years of reporting & field research on civilian harm in Iraq & Syria yalelawjournal.org/article/the-da… Appendix + data:dataverse.harvard.edu/dataset.xhtml?…

Each day we learn about Israeli airstrikes hitting schools, hospitals, apartment buildings, electrical facilities, and other critical civilian infrastructure in Gaza. How does the Israeli state argue these are legal? The same way the U.S. has increasingly done for years: It

Vol. 134, Issue 8 is live! With Articles by Oona Hathaway (Yale Law School), Azmat Khan (Columbia Journalism School, The New York Times) & Mara Revkin @mararevkin.bsky.social (Duke Law), & by James Stone; a Feature by Judge Guido Calabresi; and two Notes, by Matt Jinoo Buck (Yale Law School ’24), & by Grace Watkins (Yale Law School ’25).

In their Article, Oona Hathaway, Azmat Khan, and Mara Revkin @mararevkin.bsky.social draw on an original dataset of the U.S. military’s airstrike reports and ground reporting in Iraq and Syria to illustrate how targeting “dual-use objects” has undermined critical legal protections for civilians.

Such an important, insightful open-access article in International Organization by Mara Revkin @mararevkin.bsky.social Benjamin Krick + Jonathan Petkun, whose study of the Battle of #Mosul finds that civilian perceptions of military legitimacy are shaped not just by direct harm, but also by how and why combatants cause it⬇️

Intentional starvation of civilians as a method of war is *always* a war crime. Non-reciprocity of international humanitarian law means that no amount of alleged aid diversion by Hamas could ever justify this. See also B'Tselem בצלם بتسيلم's report from 1+ year ago: btselem.org/sites/default/…

1/ Returning from a social media hiatus to share that my first book, Polarization and International Politics, will be released on September 16 with Princeton University Press as part of their Studies in International History and Politics Series.

ICYMI in a very bad news week: On 9/9, Israel ordered a complete evacuation of Gaza City; aside from clear violations of international law, this powerful visual story by Josh Holder shows how Gaza residents have nowhere to go: nytimes.com/interactive/20… See also: reuters.com/world/middle-e…