Assistant Professor @AmericanU. Previously a postdoc @PrincetonSPIA. Political violence, civil wars, and Middle East politics
Joined June 2018
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Excited to share “Commanders of the Mujahideen: Introducing the Jihadist Leaders Dataset” at JPR! Analyzing Arabic, French, German, Turkish, and Urdu sources, we gathered information on the backgrounds of 237 leaders across multiple regions academic.oup.com/jpr/advance…
Mark Berlin retweeted
New pub. with @brkzmyilmaz out at Journal of Conflict Resolution. We offer a theoretical novelty with empirical implications to better understand the good old, (and full of inconsistent findings) diversionary use of force literature. Open access available:
journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.…
Mark Berlin retweeted
Check out my new piece for @WashInstitute: “The Islamic State in Iraq After the U.S. Withdrawal” washingtoninstitute.org/poli…
A huge thanks to @jh_barnett for joining class yesterday to share his expertise on politics and insurgency in Nigeria and discuss his recent article on the Sadiku group and its expansion in northwestern Nigeria. Check out the article here! tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.…
To what extent does conflict research engage with non-English-language sources? Pleased to share this solo-authored article where I explore this question. To do so, I examined 857 articles published about jihadist actors in 14 high-ranking journals tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.…
Despite the prominence of Arabic sources, English-language jihadist magazines received significantly more attention. Dabiq was cited in nearly five times as many articles as al-Naba’, while AQAP’s Inspire was cited in 20 more articles than IS’s Arabic-language newsletter
Mark Berlin retweeted
Very excited to share a little piece of my work that means a lot to me: my first solo-authored article is now out in the Journal of Peace Research!
In “She Who Pays for Stereotypes,” I show how gender stereotypes can shape military spending.
academic.oup.com/jpr/advance…
Mark Berlin retweeted
Check out my new article for @WashInstitute: “Five Years of Taliban Diplomacy: Recognition Without Concessions” washingtoninstitute.org/poli…
Mark Berlin retweeted
🚨New Publication🚨
Using 3 survey experiments, we find that voters use nonpolitical identity cues (e.g., a candidate driving a Toyota Prius or eating at Chick-fil-A) as partisan heuristics, but only in the absence of political info (party ID or policy)
doi.org/10.1093/poq/nfag057
Excited to share some personal news. I’ve started as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Justice, Law, Criminology & Security at American University. I’m incredibly thankful for all of the support I received from so many along the way
This is a great resource if you’re applying for jobs in political science, public policy, or public administration. The site includes job postings across different subfields, status updates, and additional information for job market candidates politicalsciencejobs.org
Mark Berlin retweeted
Today marks 5 years since Kais Saied seized power and dismantled #Tunisia's democracy. If you want to know how democracy collapsed so quickly in what had been the Arab Spring's one success story, I've got the book for you!
👀 see you in October:
The Rise and Fall of Tunisian Democracy, Cambridge University Press
Grateful for the endorsements from Professors Melani Cammett and Milan Svolik and Prime Minister Youssef Chahed.
Coming soon to a library near you!
cambridge.org/core/books/ris…
Mark Berlin retweeted
The first paper from my dissertation is now out in Political Science Research and Methods.
A short thread 👇
🌐 What shapes high-end cooperation among militant groups?
➡️ Using network data on 53 groups in Northeast India, @ilaydaonder shows that cooperation is more likely between groups with complementary capabilities and distinct constituencies. cambridge.org/core/journals/…
Mark Berlin retweeted
In a hotel room in northeast Nigeria, I opened a leading AI chatbot, turned my laptop toward a former Boko Haram commander, and asked if he'd used it. He nodded.
"You type in the question… like 'How can I build a bomb?', and then it tells you how. It is like a human robot. We used it a lot."
My new study on how the jihadist terrorist group Boko Haram uses frontier AI with @CamAISciPolicy, covered today in @nytimes 🧵/9
The DC-Area Political Violence Workshop is holding its inaugural meeting in October 2026 at American University. The workshop aims to bring together DC-area researchers to share in progress work on political violence. Please reach out with any questions! docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F…
Mark Berlin retweeted
Pleased to share this piece written with
@jh_barnett and Murtala Ahmed Rufai on the Sadiku group, a branch of #BokoHaram #JASDJ which has been growing roots in Northwestern Nigeria for some years now. Open Access, too... tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.…
Mark Berlin retweeted
New analysis from me on tracking the Islamic State through the Worldwide Activity Map I created over the past 3+ years washingtoninstitute.org/poli…
Very excited to share “Beyond Outbidding” at JCR! Testing competing hypotheses surrounding outbidding and restraint, @ilaydaonder and I analyze how armed groups respond to competition with al-Qaeda and the Islamic State doi.org/10.1177/002200272614…
Mark Berlin retweeted
Excited to share a new piece I have out in @CTCWP looking at the collapse of the indefinite detention system in Northeast Syria that held Islamic State fighters and their families, and implications, seven years later for Syria and beyond:
ctc.westpoint.edu/the-collap…
