Research
My research explores the micro-level dynamics of mass participation in intra-state violence. A large portion of this work uses agent-based computational modeling, in conjunction with empirical data, and falls into three interrelated categories of research on ethnic violence, civil war, political regimes and mass behavior.
My research on ethnic violence seeks to explain variation in both scale and duration: namely, why some episodes of violence remain localized and contained, while others spread and endure? Explanations examine the role of ethnic entrepreneurs in compelling reluctant or moderate group members to participate in violence against nominal rivals; the role of information--how individuals learn from threats facing trans-border ethnic kin or how sensationalism, in the form of violence-promoting rumors, emerges and survives over time; patterns of ethnic domination and their implications for the conditions that give rise to and later characterize violence between rival groups; and the role of associational membership.
In the area of civil war, my research examines how ethnicity interacts with resource scarcity and resource abundance to structure incentives and shape mass participation in violence. Other research in this vein examines whether the distribution of control and incentives for defection or denunciation determine the nature of violence in civil wars, be it selective or indiscriminate, and how the relationship between these factors changes with the number and power asymmetry of rival political actors. And in the area of political regimes, my research examines decision-making dynamics in closed regimes, the dynamics of turnout in popular rebellions, and for multi-ethnic democracies in sub-Saharan Africa, whether citizens vote on ethnic, economic, or strategic grounds.
Articles
“Announcement, Credibility, and Turnout in Popular Rebellions.” with M. Ross, Journal of Conflict Resolution 47:3 (June 2003):340-366. [pdf]
“Adaptive Agents, Political Institutions, and Civic Traditions in Modern Italy” Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation 6:4 (October 2003). [html]
“Blood, Diamonds, and Taxes: Lootable Wealth and Political Order in Sub-Saharan Africa.” with R. Snyder, Journal of Conflict Resolution 49:4 (August 2005):563-597. [pdf]
“Ethnic Norms and Interethnic Violence: Accounting for Mass Participation in the Rwandan Genocide.” Journal of Peace Research 43:6 (November 2006):651-669. [pdf]
"REsCape: An Agent-Based Framework for Modeling Resources, Ethnicity, and Conflict.” with D. Miodownik and J. Nart, Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation 11:2 (March 2008). [html]
"Simulating Closed Regimes Using Agent-Based Models." with R. Riolo and D. Backer. Complexity (September/October 2008):33-46. [pdf]
"Ethnic Polarization, Ethnic Salience, and Civil War." with D. Miodownik. Journal of Conflict Resolution 53:1 (February 2009):30-49. [pdf]
“Rumor Dynamics in Ethnic Violence.” with J. Kuklinski and M. Findley. Forthcoming. Journal of Politics 71:3 (July 2009): 876-892. [pdf]
"Scarcity, Abundance, and Conflict: A Complex New World?" Forthcoming. Whitehead Journal of International Diplomacy (August 2009). [pdf]
"Replication and Beyond: Revisitng the Link between Adaptive Agents, Political Institutions, and Civic Traditions." with D. Miodownik and B. Cartrite. Revise and Resubmit. Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation (2009). [html]
“Voting in Africa: Ethnic, Economic, or Strategic." with M. Bratton. Revise and Resubmit. British Journal of Political Science (2009). [pdf]
Working Papers
“A Hybrid Model of Decision-Making in Closed Political Regimes” with R. Riolo and D. Backer, Proceedings of Workshop on Social Agents: Ecology, Exchange, and Evolution, Gleacher Center, University of Chicago (October 2002). [pdf]
“Agent Based Models in the Study of Intra-State Violence” with R. Riolo, Paper prepared for the Virginia Modeling, Analysis, and Simulation Center Workshop on Human Behavioral Modeling (January 2005). [pdf]
“Social Capital and Political Violence in Sub-Saharan Africa.” with D. Backer, Afrobarometer Working Paper No. 90 (2007). [pdf]
Chapters
“Agent-Based Models in the Study of Ethnic Violence” with R. Riolo and D. Miodownik, Forthcoming in Alexander Kott and Gary Citrenbaum (eds.) Estimating Impact: A Handbook of Computational Methods and Models for Anticipating Economic, Social, Political and Security Effects in International Interventions (2009).
Contact
314 S. Kedzie Hall
East Lansing, Michigan 48824
bhavnani@msu.edu