The adage that “only Nixon could go to China” suggests hawkish leaders face fewer domestic political barriers to pursuing conciliation with foreign adversaries. We explore how this conventional wisdom intersects with prominent gender stereotypes about women’s role in national security. Do...

Policymakers often justify border hardening as a response to insecurity. However, evidence for security-based explanations of border fortification is limited. Instead, research points to political economy drivers like cross-border income inequality, migration, and populism. I argue that these...

As more women attain executive office, it is important to understand how gender dynamics affect international politics. Toward this end, we present the first evidence that gender stereotypes affect leaders' abilities to generate audience costs. Using survey experiments, we show that female...

Climate disasters raise the salience of climate change’s negative consequences, including climate-induced migration. Policy action to address climate displacement is especially contentious in the U.S., where weak support for tackling climate change intersects with high opposition to...

Ideological and operational credibility are essential to the success of transnational terrorist organizations. We demonstrate that militant groups can leverage large alliance networks to bolster their ideological and operational reputations. Organizations can draw on operational capabilities and...

Cooperation among militant organizations contributes to capability but also presents security risks. This is particularly the case when organizations face substantial repression from the state. As a consequence, for cooperation to emerge and persist when it is most valuable, militant groups must...

How does combat exposure affect political attitudes? In the realm of foreign policy, some scholars view violence as promoting belligerence, while others argue military experience fosters caution and restraint. We adjudicate this debate using archival military surveys fielded by the US War...

What determines whether countries pursue and obtain armed drones? Using an original time-series dataset, we conduct the first comprehensive analysis of armed drone proliferation from 1994-2019. We theorize and find evidence that security threats––like terrorism––are not the only factors...