🔥The 9th Round of Easy Loan, Earn $40 Reward is in progress❗️ ⏰ Promotion Period: January 15th - Feburary 15th, 2025 👉 Register now and check more details at gate.io/campaigns/358

Check out my new article at War on the Rocks: “The Patient Efforts Behind Hayat Tahrir al-Sham’s Success In Aleppo” warontherocks.com/2024/12/the-pa… You’ll want to keep this one bookmarked!

While this semester has had its ups and downs, my students have been consistently incredible

The archiving done by Aaron Y. Zelin is unreal. Such an incredible resource

Our article with Adam Lenton comparing Post-Soviet New Year Speeches across 6 countries has been published in Communist and Post-Communist Studies. Perfect timing, if I do say so myself, ahead of the new wave of addresses on December 31st! Give it a read🎄 online.ucpress.edu/cpcs/article-a…

Received approval to teach “Civil War in Syria” in Summer 2025! Time to start drafting a syllabus. Reading recommendations are always welcome!

Snow day!

🚨 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!

Avoiding winter in DC

How should we engage with Syria's new rulers? My latest for Foreign Affairs leverages hundreds of quantitative surveys & in-depth interviews with armed combatants in Syria right up until the day of the offensive. W/ special thanks to co-authors Nafees Hamid, PhD, Nils Mallock,

Postdoc opening at Princeton SPIA. Applications are due this month. I’m more than happy to answer any questions about the position! puwebp.princeton.edu/AcadHire/apply…

In a new U.S. Institute of Peace report, Korbel's Timothy D. Sisk, Mark Berlin, & Sandra Poni Tombe examine challenges facing international peacemaking in today’s complex conflict landscape, offering insights into why peace agreements are rarer despite increasing warfare: usip.org/publications/2…

I'm thrilled to announce the launch of our monthly newsletter The Durand Dispatch! Subscribe for free here duranddispatch.com for essential security developments from the Afghanistan-Pakistan region. We cut through the noise to bring you what matters most! The Durand Dispatch

One of my recent articles has now been officially assigned page numbers in Journal of Conflict Resolution. 🔍 Key finding: The spatial distribution of loyal, disloyal, and wavering rebel supporters explains who gets targeted and where. Check it out here: doi.org/10.1177/002200…

Excited for ISA 2025! Looking forward to seeing lots of friends and presenting research with Ilayda Onder on armed group restraint in civil wars

Excited to present findings from this working paper at the upcoming 2025 APSA Virtual Research Meeting. I analyze the use of non-English-language sources in 857 articles published in leading conflict, security, and terrorism journals from 2013 to 2023

I just published a new article titled “Criminal Violence, the State, and Society” in Annual Reviews, which examines the growing political science research on criminal violence over the past 15 years. Link 👉go.shr.lc/3GnoH7f 1/ Here is a summary of some key insights...

Two R&Rs submitted this month! Keeping all fingers and toes crossed for the foreseeable future

Excited to share my publication on Chinese strategic partnerships! 🎉 If you're curious about why China builds strategic partnerships instead of alliances, or want to better understand what these partnerships actually mean, this paper is for you! Abu-Haltam, D. Where to Throw

My Civil War in Syria course is filling up! I’ll share the syllabus and extended reading list soon in case they might be useful resources

Happy to share that my chapter, The Arabian Peninsula Wars (1919–1934), has been published. The edited volume, A Violent Peace, features chapters that move beyond nationalistic narratives and challenge the widely held view that the interwar period was one of global peace.