I am fascinated by understanding how to bring businesses, some of the most powerful global actors, into the peace process.

My book, The Building and Breaking of Peace: Corporate Activities in Civil War Prevention and Resolution(Oxford University Press, 2021), considers the role of corporate firms in building peaceful societies. Some of the findings are discussed in thisWar on the Rocks post.

Listen here and read here for two different overviews of my work.

My second book, a collaborative PEP Lab project entitled The Missing Peace: Understanding Private Enterprise and Peace (Oxford University Press, forthcoming spring 2027), examines how private enterprises and community organizations serve as critical mechanisms for diverting individuals from armed conflict. While traditional disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration programs often prioritize basic economic subsistence, this research argues that inclusive entrepreneurship provides a more profound dual benefit: it offers essential income while fostering the social bonds necessary for peaceful coexistence.

By linking local reintegration efforts to broader state-building initiatives, the book demonstrates how the private sector can effectively lower the incentives for a return to violence. This theory is tested through a rigorous multi-methodological framework, combining large-N analysis with extensive qualitative fieldwork. The study evaluates how national peace agreements create frameworks for local stability, comparing the reintegration of ex-combatants in Colombia and Uganda, and examining the role of community organizations in Northern Ireland and Senegal. Finally, the research applies these global insights to urban crime prevention in Chicago. Drawing on field interviews, news data, and business licensing information, the work identifies the private sector as a vital, often overlooked piece of the conflict resolution puzzle.

My broader research agenda encompasses conflict and cooperation, examining the wide variation in responses to violence, such as conflict management, conflict expansion, and peacekeeping and peacebuilding. My work is published in International Studies Quarterly, International Interactions, and Conflict Management and Peace Science.

See my Google Scholar page for published pieces. Feel free to contact me for problems with paywalls or replication data.