Research agendas
I. Wartime civilian displacement, state responses, and the politics of repair
Civilian displacement during war
What explains wartime displacement? In my first book and related publications, I conceptualize displacement as an interaction between armed groups and civilians and argue that different forms stem from how armed groups target civilians: selective targeting is associated with individual escape, indiscriminate targeting with mass evasion, and collective targeting (based on shared traits) with political cleansing. This disaggregation allows us to explain different forms of displacement that contribute to the overall scale of this massive form of wartime violence. During the Colombian civil war, democratic reforms led armed groups to target civilians who supported political rivals collectively, which led to an increase in displacement and made political cleansing a feature of the war, even in the absence of an ethnic cleavage.
Related work:
2017. Democracy and Displacement in Colombia’s Civil War. Cornell University Press.
2020. Spanish translation: Democracia y desplazamiento en la guerra civil colombiana. Bogotá: Editorial Universidad del Rosario.
Interview about the book and my research: E-International Relations Feature Interview.
2023. "Social Control in Civil Wars," with Corinna Jentzsch. Civil Wars. Special Issue, 25th Anniversary.
2018. “Democracy and Civil War: The Case of Colombia,” with Livia I. Schubiger. Conflict Management and Peace Science.
2016. “Warfare, Political Identities, and Displacement in Spain and Colombia,” with Laia Balcells. Political Geography.
2015. “True Believers, Deserters, and Traitors: Who Leaves Insurgent Groups and Why,” with Ben Oppenheim, Juan F. Vargas and Michael Weintraub. Journal of Conflict Resolution.
2011. “Electing Displacement: Political Cleansing in Apartadó, Colombia.” Journal of Conflict Resolution.
2009. “Seeking Safety: Displacement and Targeting in Civil Wars.” Journal of Peace Research. Vol 46, No. 3. 419-430.
How do states respond to displacement and wartime violence?
Displacement is a massive feature of wartime violence. What are the political implications of displacement? How do states respond? In fall 2026, I will start Government Responses to Internal Displacement (GRID), funded by an ERC Consolidator grant.
Related work:
2026. "Three decades of policies on internal displacement: Patterns, progress, and an uncertain future." with Adam Lichtenheld. Researching Internal Displacement blog.
2024. "The politics of forced displacement and how states respond." with Stephanie Schwartz and Adam Lichtenheld. Researching Internal Displacement blog.
2025. "State Policies on Internal Displacement (SPID): Introducing a global dataset," with Adam Lichtenheld. Under review.
2025. "Government responses to internal and international displacement (GRIID)," with Adam Lichtenheld and Stephanie Schwartz. In progress.
2018. “Endogenous Taxation in Ongoing Internal Conflicts: The Case of Colombia,” with Rafael Ch, Jacob N. Shapiro, and Juan F. Vargas. American Political Science Review.
2017. “Constraining the Samurai: Rebellion and Taxation in Early Modern Japan,” with Christopher Paik and Seiki Tanaka. International Studies Quarterly.
How do civilians navigate displacement, violence and repair?
Civilians also respond to the displacement they face and state institutions in a variety of ways.
Related work:
War and Repair in Colombia, with Enilda Luz Jiménez Pineda, book manuscript in progress.
Drawing on 18 years of conversations with Enilda — an internally displaced person at the center of the book — the book examines how Colombia's transitional justice efforts shaped the way victims understood their own experiences and the possibilities for redress.
Forthcoming. "Rebel governance and political participation," with Michael Weintraub. In Institutional Legacies of Violent Conflict: Development and State-Building in the Shadow of Wartime Institutional Change, Ed Patricia Justino. Oxford University Press.
Forthcoming. "We are what we care for: Living with diversity in nature and society in Colombia," A conversation between Enilda Luz Jiménez Pineda and Abbey Steele. International Feminist Journal of Politics Conversations section.
2025 (online first). "The bureaucracy of reparations and political engagement," with Michael Weintraub and Sebastián Pantoja-Barrios. Comparative Politics.
2025 (online first). "The micro-foundations of peace: Attitudes towards the implementation of Colombia's peace agreement in war-affected regions," with Silvia Otero-Bahamón, Sebastián Pantoja-Barrios, Casper Kurpan, Helga Malmin Binningsbø. International Peacekeeping.
2023. “Introducing the Mapping Attitudes, Perceptions and Support (MAPS) dataset on the Colombian Peace Process,” with Michael Weintraub, Sebastián Pantoja-Barrios, Håvard Mokleiv Nygård, Helga Malmin Binningsbø, and Marianne Dahl. Journal of Peace Research.
2019. “Civilian Resettlement Patterns in Civil Wars.” Journal of Peace Research. Special Issue on Refugees, Forced Migration, and Conflict.
2018. “IDP Resettlement and Collective Targeting during Civil War: Evidence from Colombia.” Journal of Peace Research.
2025. "Displacement, diversity and dispute resolution in war-affected Colombia," with Sebastián Pantoja-Barrios and Alejandra Ortiz Ayala. Revise & resubmit, International Studies Quarterly.
II. International prohibition regimes, armed violence, and domestic order
My second research agenda focuses on how state-building and non-violent, democratic order are constrained not only by domestic factors, but also by the international prohibition of the drug trade.
Related work:
The War on Drugs and the Prohibition of Peace. with Juan Masullo. In progress.
This book argues that the War on Drugs is a central obstacle to peace in the region. Drawing on examples from all over the region, including countries once considered “islands of peace” and well as others that have managed to put an end to bloody civil wars, we show how drug prohibition sustains armed organizations, fuels violent competition over illicit markets, and reshapes the relationship between states, criminal groups, and civilians. By examining violence, governance, and democracy in the shadow of the drug war, the book bridges international relations and comparative politics, as well as the study of political violence and organized crime.
2026. "Competitive state-building and civilian response in Colombia," with Sebastián Pantoja-Barrios and Juan Vargas. In progress.
2025. "How Drug Wars Destroy Democracy." with Juan Masullo. Journal of Democracy online exclusive.
2024. "Civil war legacies, the prohibition of the drug trade, and armed politics in Latin America." Review essay, Latin American Politics and Society.
2020. “Subnational Variation across States: A Typology and Research Agenda,” with Imke Harbers. Introduction to special issue "The Subnational State in Latin America," Latin American Politics and Society.
2017. “Subcontracting State-building.” with Jacob N. Shapiro. Small Wars and Insurgencies.