The Cold Peace: Russo-Western Relations as a Mimetic Cold War

In 1989–1991 the geo-ideological contestation between two blocs was swept away, together with the ideology of civil war and its concomitant Cold War played out on the larger stage. Paradoxically, while the domestic sources of Cold War confrontation have been transcended, its external manifestations remain in the form of a ‘legacy’ geopolitical contest between the dominant hegemonic power (the United States) and a number of potential rising great powers, of which Russia is one. The post-revolutionary era is thus one of a ‘cold peace’. A cold peace is a mimetic cold war. In other words, while a cold war accepts the logic of conflict in the international system and between certain protagonists in particular, a cold peace reproduces the behavioural patterns of a cold war but suppresses acceptance of the logic of behaviour. A cold peace is accompanied by a singular stress on notions of victimhood for some and undigested and bitter victory for others. The perceived victim status of one set of actors provides the seedbed for renewed conflict, while the ‘victory’ of the others cannot be consolidated in some sort of relatively unchallenged post-conflict order. The ‘universalism’ of the victors is now challenged by Russia's neo-revisionist policy, including not so much the defence of Westphalian notions of sovereignty but the espousal of an international system with room for multiple systems (the Schmittean pluriverse)

Macro, Meso, and Micro Research on Genocide: Gains, Shortcomings, and Future Areas of Inquiry

The article critically reviews the existing literature on genocide and mass violence and divides it ac- cording to different levels of analysis: macro, meso, and micro levels. We discuss the main theories and findings at each level of analysis and suggest avenues for further research. We argue that the literature on genocide should pay more attention to meso and micro levels of analysis. We also iden- tify a number of other research problems, including conceptualization, selection bias, case compar- ability, the role of restraint, the question of change over time, and the need to engage in dialogue with the broader social science scholarship on political violence and intrastate conflict

The Death Camp Eldorado: Political and Economic Effects of Mass Violence

This is the replication data for "The Death Camp Eldorado: Political and Economic Effects of Mass Violence

Does Reform Prevent Rebellion? Evidence from Russia’s Emancipation of the Serfs ∗

Contemporary models of political economy suggest that unrest and revolution can be prevented by reforms that target excluded groups, but little is known about the actual effect of such reforms on social stability. We explore the impact of reform on rebellion with a new dataset on peasant disturbances in nineteenth-century Russia. Using a difference-in-differences design that exploits the timing of various peasant reforms, we document a large increase in disturbances among former serfs following the Emancipation Reform of 1861, a development completely counter to reformers’ intent. Drawing on a simple global game that illustrates the various mechanisms by which reform might affect rebellion, we trace this outcome to divisions among the elite and limits to state capacity, which together contributed to a reform design that favored the nobility and a reform implementation that was captured by the local gentry. Consistent with this perspective, we find that grievances connected to reform were most pronounced in provinces with rich agricultural land, where landlords seized control of the implementation process to reallocate land allotments in their favor

Replication data for: Finkel Gehlbach Olsen "Does Reform Prevent Rebellion"

Replication data from "Does Reform Prevent Rebellion? Evidence from Russia's Emancipation of the Serfs," published in Comparative Political Studies

Replication Data for "Collective Action and Representation in Autocracies: Evidence from Russia's Great Reforms"

Data and code to replicate findings in "Collective Action and Representation in Autocracies: Evidence from Russia's Great Reforms" forthcoming in American Political Science Revie