ravi bhavnani

My research explores the micro-level dynamics of mass participation in civil violence.  A large portion of this work uses agent-based computational modeling in conjunction with empirical data.  Questions that motivate my research include the following:

• What explains variation in the scale and duration of interethnic violence?  Why do some episodes of violence remain localized and contained, while others spread and endure?
• How do ethnic entrepreneurs compel reluctant or moderate group members to participate in violence against nominal rivals?  Under what conditions are they successful?
• How do individuals and groups learn from events affecting trans-border ethnic kin? Do ethnic minorities internalize these lessons differently from members of ethnic majorities?    
• How does ethnicity interact with resource scarcity and resource abundance to structure incentives and shape participation in civil violence? 
• Why does sensationalism, in the form of violence-promoting rumors, emerge and spread? Why do these rumors fail to lose credibility over time? 
• Does associational membership that cuts across ethnic lines reduce the incidence of ethnic violence? Under what conditions does a high level of interethnic trust exist in the absence of similarly high levels of associational membership?   High levels of membership in the absence of high trust? 

Peer Reviewed Papers

• [13] "Learning from Adversity: Ethnic Ties and Ethnic Domination" Under Review.  [pdf]
• [12] "Adaptive Agents, Political Institutions, and Civic Traditions: An Exercise in Docking and Beyond" with Dan Miodownik and Brit Cartrite.  Under Review.  [pdf]
• [11] “Voting in Africa: Ethnic, Economic, or Strategic"  with Michael Bratton.  Under Review.  [pdf] 
• [10] "Revisiting the Relationship between Ethnic MInority Rule and Civil War" with Dan Miodownik.  Under Review.  [pdf]
• [09] “Rumor Dynamics in Ethnic Violence” with James Kuklinski and Michael Findley. Under Review.  [pdf]
• [08] "Ethnic Polarization, Ethnic Salience, and Civil War" with Dan Miodownik.  Forthcoming. Journal of Conflict Resolution (February 2009) [pdf]
• [07] "Simulating Closed Regimes Using Agent-Based Models" with Rick Riolo and David Backer. Forthcoming, Complexity  (August 2008).  [pdf]
• [06] "REsCape: An Agent-Based Framework for Modeling Resources, Ethnicity, and Conflict” with Dan Miodownik and Jonas Nart, Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation 11:2 (March 2008).  [html]
• [05] “Ethnic Norms and Interethnic Violence: Accounting for Mass Participation in the Rwandan Genocide” Journal of Peace Research 43:6 (November 2006): 651-669.  [pdf]
• [04] “Blood, Diamonds, and Taxes: Lootable Wealth and Political Order in Sub-Saharan Africa” with Richard Snyder,  Journal of Conflict Resolution 49:4 (August 2005): 563-597.  [pdf]
• [03] “Adaptive Agents, Political Institutions, and Civic Traditions in Modern Italy” Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation 6:4 (October 2003).  [html]
• [02] “Announcement, Credibility, and Turnout in Democratic Rebellions” with Michael Ross, Journal of Conflict Resolution 47:3 (June 2003): 40-366.  [pdf]
• [01] “Localized Ethnic Conflict and Genocide: Accounting for Differences in Rwanda and Burundi” with David Backer,  Journal of Conflict Resolution 44:3 (June 2000): 283-307. [pdf]

Book Chapters

• “Agent Based Models in the Study of Ethnic Norms and Interethnic Violence” in Neil Harrison (ed.) Complexity in World Politics: Concepts and Methods of a New Paradigm. SUNY Press (2006).

Working Papers

• [4]   “Social Capital and Political Violence in Sub-Saharan Africa.” with David Backer, Afrobarometer Working Paper No. 90 (2007).
• [3] “Agent Based Models in the Study of Intra-State Violence” with Rick Riolo, Paper prepared for the Virginia Modeling, Analysis, and Simulation Center Workshop on Human Behavioral Modeling,  January 4-5 (2005).
• [2] “A Hybrid Model of Decision-Making in Closed Political Regimes” with Rick Riolo and David Backer, Proceedings of Workshop on Social Agents: Ecology, Exchange, and Evolution,  Gleacher Center, University of Chicago, October 11-12 (2002). [pdf]
• [1] “Localized Ethnic Conflict and Genocide: Accounting for Differences in Rwanda and Burundi”
  with David Backer,  Santa Fe Institute Working Paper 99-07-053 (1999).

Projects

• RSAND: Resource Scarcity and Abundance in the Niger Delta

• "Ethnic Polarization, Ethnic Salience, and Civil War"
  Disaggregating Civil War: Democracy, Ethnicity and Intervention, ETH, Zurich, September 2008