Publications
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"The Choice Between Intergovernmentalism and Nongovernmentalism: Projecting Domestic Preferences to Global Governance" with Alexandru Grigorescu, World Politics, 71(1): 88-125, 2019.
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Abstract | Article | Harvard Dataverse page for data and replication files
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"Women Insurgents, Rebel Organization Structure and Sustaining the Rebellion: The Case of Kurdistan Workers’ Party" Security Studies, 31(3): 381-416, 2022.​
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Abstract | Article | Syracuse Qualitative Data Repository page for data files
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"Women’s Role in Violence and the UN Women, Peace, Security Agenda" Alternative Politics (forthcoming)
World map
compiled by Pîrî Reis in 1513.
Book Reviews
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"Understanding Nonviolence: Contours and Contexts, ed.s by Maia Carter Hallward and Julie M. Norman" Democratization, 23(7): 1316-1318, 2016.
Working Papers
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“Public Preferences, Gender, and Foreign Support for Armed Movements” (monograph)
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“Gender Norms and Rebel Group Survivability”
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“International Organizations and Public Attitudes towards Gender Equality in the Middle East: Evidence from Saudi Arabia” (with Mujtaba Ali Isani)
Work in Progress
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“International Status and Domestic Support for Women’s Political Representation” (with Ekrem BaÅŸer)​
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“Activist Frameworks and Support for Gendered Redistribution of Power” (with Yusuf MaÄŸiya)
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“Gender Differences in International Cooperation”
The Choice Between Intergovernmentalism and Nongovernmentalism:
Projecting Domestic Preferences to Global Governance
This article seeks to explain when governments are more likely to take an intergovernmental approach to resolving global collective problems rather than step back and encourage (or simply allow) nongovernmental actors to become the main global governors. The authors suggest that an important factor driving this choice is the domestic ideological leanings of powerful states toward greater or lesser government activism. Such ideologies connect domestic preferences to international ones. They also lead to the establishment of domestic institutions that, in turn, facilitate the emergence of international organizations. Using these arguments, the authors develop a set of inferences regarding the likelihood that governments will establish and join intergovernmental organizations. The authors test their hypotheses through a study of global governance in the education realm, and also apply a series of statistical analyses covering developments in all issue-areas over the last century and a half.
Women Insurgents, Rebel Organization Structure and Sustaining the Rebellion: The Case of Kurdistan Workers’ Party
How do women insurgents affect rebel organizations’ structure and survivability? Scholars acknowledge the importance of organization-level dynamics and unit composition for conflict outcomes. However, our understanding of how gender-diverse cadres impact rebel survivability remains limited. I examine the mechanisms through which women sustain the armed conflict. I analyze micro-organizational dynamics of rebellion through a qualitative case study of the Kurdish armed movement in Turkey between 1982-2015, based on the official archives of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party. I show that women insurgents enable tactical diversity, aid the organization’s coup-proofing strategy against factions, and mobilize domestic and international audiences. Women contribute most to their organization during crises and due to exploitation of gender inequalities. Analyzing the relationship between gender dynamics, group structure, and evolving rebel strategies, this study shows that the gender of the membership is an important factor influencing rebel survivability.
Public Preferences, Gender, and Foreign Support for Armed Movements:
How does the information about women’s presence in insurgent groups affect receiving foreign support? Do the rebel groups with women fighters attract more foreign support than the ones that do not have women? If so, through what mechanisms does support operate?This study argues gender composition of the rebel groups serves as a cognitive shortcut to inform about the rebel behaviors regarding humane treatment, which facilitates attracting international support for groups with women insurgents. Through survey experiments conducted in Tunisia and the US, I show that foreign audiences are more likely to support giving aid to rebel groups when they include women insurgents. I further analyze the mechanisms linking women insurgents to higher levels of support. This support is driven mainly by the perception that the group is less likely to use violence against civilians and that supporting a gender-diverse organization would improve the sponsoring state’s reputation in the eyes of the international community. I further test whether this favorable opinion toward women insurgents can shape foreign policy decisions in favor of supporting gender-diverse insurgent groups. Using macro-level evidence concerning the supporter states and the prevalence of female combatants in a global sample of rebel organizations between 1989 and 2009, I provide evidence that democratic states are more likely to support groups with women insurgents.
Gender Norms and Rebel Group Survivability
Existing research argues that rebel organizations that recruit women have higher prospects for survival and victory. However, we have limited understanding about the conditions under which female recruitment can be advantageous for rebel groups. I argue that female combatants’ impact on conflict duration is conditional on the prevalence of traditional gender norms. I conduct survival analysis using a global sample of rebel groups from 1979 to 2009 at macro-level, and at micro-level, I leverage the district-level variation on gender norms within a single conflict using large-N data from Kurdish Armed Insurgency. The results suggest that female members’ advantage in sustaining the rebellion is only salient in societies with restrictive gender norms regarding women’s participation in public life. In contrast, female members do not appear to contribute to rebel group survivability through unique gendered ways in societies embracing more gender-egalitarian norms. The results have important research and policy implications which highlight the need to understand gender disparities as a mainstream security issue.
International Organizations and Public Attitudes towards Gender Equality in the Middle East: Evidence from Saudi Arabia
This study examines the impact of international pressure on public perceptions of gender equality in the context of authoritarian regimes. Many autocracies adopted gender quotas in recent years for strategic reasons, often to appear favorable to Western nations. However we do not know if these policies create a backlash where constituencies are deeply anti-American and anti-Western. Focusing on Saudi Arabia, our survey experiments explore how public support for recent gender quotas is affected by endorsements from the UN, Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), an international non-governmental organization (INGO), the US, and local religious leaders. Our findings reveal a significant increase in public support for women's political representation when endorsed by regional international organizations such as the OIC, even surpassing the impact of endorsements from local religious leaders. Conversely, endorsements from the UN, INGOs, and the US government exhibit a slightly decreasing effect on support for gender quotas, though statistically insignificant. This study underscores the substantial role played by regional international organizations in shaping local attitudes toward gender equality. It emphasizes the complex interplay between global and regional actors, providing insights into the dynamics that influence women's rights support in autocratic regimes.