Kyle Beardsley

Book · January 1, 2026 Featured Publication Perhaps more than ever, we need to invest in the study of the causes and consequences of crises. Since its founding in 1975, the International Crisis Behavior (ICB) Project has aimed to better equip academics, policymakers, and the next generation of engag ... Full text Cite

Mixed Blessings International Relationships of Assistance and Conflict

Book · 2026 Featured Publication Cite

The grass is always greener on the other side: Transnational ethnic inequality and ethno-nationalist conflict

Journal article Journal of Peace Research · December 1, 2025 Featured Publication Existing research has shown that horizontal inequalities arising from comparisons between ethnic groups can promote ethno-nationalist conflict. However, these studies have largely focused on comparison between groups within the same country. In this articl ... Full text Cite

The Coevolution of Networks of Interstate Support, Interstate Threat, and Civil War

Journal article Journal of Politics · October 1, 2024 Featured Publication Interstate and intrastate conflicts are nested in broader networks of rivalry and cooperation and can be modeled as such. An intergroup security dilemma logic points to trade-offs states face as they cultivate “support groups”—receiving security assistance ... Full text Cite

Can peace operations mitigate the effect of armed conflict on malnutrition? Evidence from Côte d’Ivoire

Journal article Environment and Security · September 2023 Featured Publication Armed conflict increases food insecurity leading to malnutrition especially in women, but can peace operations mitigate the increased prevalence of malnutrition in conflict zones? This study uses women’s nutrition outcomes—key indicators of societa ... Full text Cite

Tipping Points: Challenges in Analyzing International Crisis Escalation

Journal article International Studies Review · September 1, 2022 Featured Publication Why do some near crises tip over into full-blown crisis and others do not? This paper considers existing scholarship and identifies four key barriers to using quantitative analysis for tipping-point analyses: strategic indeterminacy; the incentives for con ... Full text Cite

Policing Ethnicity: Lab-in-the-Field Evidence on Discrimination, Cooperation, and Ethnic Balancing in the Liberian National Police

Journal article Quarterly Journal of Political Science · April 28, 2022 Featured Publication Ethnic balancing in the security sector increasingly accompanies power sharing agreements after civil war, but new challenges arise as these institutions must sustain cooperation amidst increasing ethnic heterogeneity. Inclusive involvement in security sec ... Full text Cite

Ethnic and gender hierarchies in the crucible of war

Journal article International Studies Quarterly · September 1, 2020 Featured Publication Recent scholarship shows war can catalyze reforms related to gender power imbalances, but what about reforms related to ethnic inequalities? While war can disrupt the political, social and economic institutions at the root of ethnic hierarchy-just as it ca ... Full text Cite

Hierarchy and the provision of order in international politics

Journal article Journal of Politics · April 1, 2020 Featured Publication The anarchic international system is actually heavily structured: Communities of states join together for common benefit; strong states form hierarchical relationships with weak states to enforce order and achieve preferred outcomes. Breaking from prior re ... Full text Cite

Conflict, Peace, and the Evolution of Women's Empowerment

Journal article International Organization · March 1, 2019 Featured Publication How do periods of conflict and peace shape women's empowerment around the world? While existing studies have demonstrated that gender inequalities contribute to the propensity for armed conflict, we consider how the anticipation and realization of armed co ... Full text Cite

Resolving Civil Wars before They Start: The un Security Council and Conflict Prevention in Self-Determination Disputes

Journal article British Journal of Political Science · July 1, 2017 Featured Publication A large literature has demonstrated that international action can promote the resolution of civil wars. However, international actors do not wait until violence starts to seek to manage conflicts. This article considers the ways in which the United Nations ... Full text Cite

Equal Opportunity Peacekeeping Women, Peace, and Security in Post-Conflict States

Book · February 1, 2017 Featured Publication Karim and Beardsley also identify and examine how increasing the representation of women in peacekeeping forces, and even more importantly through enhancing a more holistic value for "equal opportunity," can enable peacekeeping operations ... ... Cite

Roving Bandits? The Geographical Evolution of African Armed Conflicts

Journal article International Studies Quarterly · September 1, 2015 Featured Publication The fighting in some civil wars primarily takes place in a few stable locations, while the fighting in others moves substantially. We posit that rebel groups that do not primarily fight for a specific ethnic group, that receive outside military assistance, ... Full text Cite

Third-Party Conflict Management and the Willingness to Make Concessions

Journal article Journal of Conflict Resolution · January 1, 2014 Featured Publication Third-party conflict management, particularly legal dispute resolution (arbitration and adjudication) and mediation, can help improve the willingness of disputants to make asymmetric concessions by ameliorating commitment problems and providing political c ... Full text Cite

Following the Flag or Following the Charter? Examining the Determinants of UN Involvement in International Crises, 1945-2002

Journal article International Studies Quarterly · March 1, 2012 Featured Publication This paper compares the explanatory power of two models of UN intervention behavior: (i) an "organizational mission model" built around the proposition that variations in the amount of resources that the UN devotes to different conflicts primarily reflect ... Full text Cite

Peacekeeping and the contagion of armed conflict

Journal article Journal of Politics · October 1, 2011 Featured Publication Existing scholarship has characterized the severity of and mechanisms behind the problem of conflict contagion but not how to address it. Although studies of peacekeeping have demonstrated that it can prevent conflict recurrence, we know little about wheth ... Full text Cite

The Mediation Dilemma

Book · 2011 Featured Publication Cite

Pain, pressure and political cover: Explaining mediation incidence

Journal article Journal of Peace Research · July 1, 2010 Featured Publication This article explores the effect of domestic and international politics on the choice of mediation as a conflict management strategy in international crises. Existing work has yet to fully explore how domestic and international audiences shape the combatan ... Full text Cite

Rebel groups as predatory organizations: The political effects of the 2004 Tsunami in Indonesia and Sri Lanka

Journal article Journal of Conflict Resolution · August 1, 2009 Featured Publication In this article we propose a new typology for insurgent groups to explain why in such remarkably similar conflicts-Sri Lanka and Aceh-the impact of the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami was so different. We argue that two principal factors shape all rebel groups b ... Full text Cite

Nuclear weapons as shields

Journal article Conflict Management and Peace Science · July 1, 2009 Featured Publication What security benefits do nuclear weapons provide to their possessors? After accounting for two potential selection effects, the empirical evidence from all international crises from 1945 to 2000 indicates that opponents of nuclear-weapon states demonstrat ... Full text Cite

Winning with the bomb

Journal article Journal of Conflict Resolution · April 1, 2009 Featured Publication Nuclear weapons' effects on an actor's success in coercive diplomacy are in part a function of how nuclear weapons change the perceived costs of conflict. The authors argue that states can improve their allotment of a good or convince an opponent to back d ... Full text Cite

Agreement without peace? International mediation and time inconsistency problems

Journal article American Journal of Political Science · October 1, 2008 Featured Publication Mediation has competing short- and long-term effects. In the short run, the actors are better able to identify and settle on a mutually satisfying outcome. In the long run, mediation can create artificial incentives that, as the mediator's influence wanes ... Full text Cite

Mediation style and crisis outcomes

Journal article Journal of Conflict Resolution · February 1, 2006 Featured Publication This study focuses on the varying effectiveness of three mediation styles - facilitation, formulation, and manipulation - on international crises. Effectiveness is assessed in terms of three outcome variables: formal agreement, post-crisis tension reductio ... Full text Cite