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Paul Staniland

Professor

University of Chicago Department of Political Science

Paul Staniland, Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago and Faculty Affiliate of The Pearson Institute, conducts research on civil war, international security, and ethnic politics, primarily in South Asia. 

His book Networks of Rebellion: Explaining Insurgent Cohesion and Collapse examines how insurgent groups are organized and the circumstances under which they can survive counterinsurgency. Networks of Rebellion won the Joseph Lepgold Book Prize, Peter Katzenstein Book Prize, and Myres McDougal Prize. He is currently finishing a book about “armed politics” in South Asia. Other research agendas examine the domestic politics of international relations in South Asia, trajectories of the left in post-colonial Asia, the use of social media by political actors, insurgency and counterinsurgency, and civil-military relations. 

At the University of Chicago, Staniland codirects the Program on International Security Policy, is a cofounder of the Program on Political Violence, and is associate director of the Chicago Project on Security and Terrorism. He is a nonresident scholar in the South Asia Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and is the faculty director of the University of Chicago Committee on International Relations. He received his AB from the University of Chicago and his PhD from MIT, both in political science. He teaches courses on civil wars and qualitative methods.

Baidoa, Somalia

Makeshift, temporary shelter made of plastic and clothing at a refugee center in Baidoa, Somalia.