About me

I am a first-gen immigrant and student turned into Assistant Professor of Political Science at Bridgewater State University. I teach a range of courses on International Relations, US Foreign Policy, Quantitative Methods, Globalization and Global Governance, among others. At Bridgewater State, I also serve as the Co-Coordinator of the Democratic Governance & Leadership Program (DGLP).

Additionally, I am a non-residential fellow at the Center for Strategic Studies, the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University.

I study the drivers and outcomes of international military interventions, especially those arising from violent intrastate conflicts. I also research the impact of economic crises across states, welfare systems, and national demographics. My regional interests relate to Eastern Europe, the Western Balkans, and the transatlantic sphere.

I received my PhD from Northeastern University, specializing in International Relations, Comparative Politics, and Quantitative Methods. 

See below for more details on my research program outputs as well as my teaching experience.

The Military Intervention Project (MIP) & US Foreign Policy

I have served as the Research Director of the Military Intervention Project (MIP) within the Center for Strategic Studies at the Fletcher School, Tufts University. In this capacity, I led a team of researchers and was responsible for designing, implementing, and reporting on the Center’s flagship project. MIP offers the definitive dataset and associated case narratives of all US military interventions since 1776, including over 200 variables on political, economic, and security outcomes, costs, and drivers of intervention. Beyond managing the MIP research team and collecting and analyzing the data, I spearheaded grant-writing initiatives for the Center and planned and participated in speaking engagements so as to introduce MIP to the academic and policy communities. I remain engaged with the Center’s research activities as a non-residential visiting fellow.

My first book based on the Military Intervention Project (MIP), titled Dying by the Sword: The Militarization of US Foreign Policy was published in 2023 by Oxford University Press (listed on Foreign Affairs & War on the Rocks Best Books of 2023). The article introducing MIP is published in The Journal of Conflict Resolution, while the article introducing the book’s main themes is published in Foreign Affairs.

Humanitarian Military Interventions

With the support of the EUSA Haas Fund Fellowship, my first single-authored book, From Kosovo to Darfur: Why Military Humanitarianism Favors the West, is forthcoming via the University of Michigan Press. The quantitative findings of the book appear in the journal International Relations. The book offers the first regionally-sensitive analysis of humanitarian military interventions since the end of the Cold War. It asks, why are some violent crises more likely to prompt humanitarian military interventions than others? While the literature focuses on either national interests or humanitarian norms as predictors of humanitarian military intervention, I argue that biased regional institutions, fueled by elite perceptions of the violent intrastate conflict, drive patterns of humanitarian military intervention – making interventions geographically and culturally closer to the West most probable and most intense. In addition to the construction of an original dataset on intrastate conflict and third-party interventions, my book relies on multi-lingual case studies on the Kosovo Crisis, Libya Crisis, and Darfur to trace the interactions between region, identity, and conflict perceptions during times of intrastate conflict.

Gendered Labor Markets and Other Programs

Beyond my research on intrastate crises, I also study and publish on post-crisis labor markets and welfare institutions across OECD countries using a strong gendered perspective. Additionally, some of my research studies Western Balkan politics, especially as connected to US foreign policy and transatlantic relations. Please review my research page for more details.

In sum, my top research interests include: 1.) modeling international responses to security crises; 2.) the effects of governmental institutions and legacies on economic crises; and 3.) transatlantic security, with an Eastern Europe and Balkans specialization.

Teaching

Last (but never, ever least), teaching remains a cornerstone of my academic pursuits. It is imperative that my research informs my teaching and vice versa. I have designed and taught a wide range of courses at Northeastern University and Tufts University, including Quantitative Techniques, International Security, and International Relations. I continue to grow my teaching portfolio and pedagogical knowledge at Bridgewater State University, where I teach in-person, hybrid, and online courses on International Relations, Foreign Policy, Globalization, and more.

If any of the themes above have sparked your interest, I encourage you to explore this site for a collection of my publications, analytical reports, op-eds, and teaching materials. Please, don't hesitate to reach out with any questions or comments.