Erica De Bruin

Welcome! I am an Assistant Professor of Government at Hamilton College, where my work focuses on civil-military relations and civil war. My research interests include the causes and dynamics of military coups, the variety of coercive institutions rulers employ, and how armed groups build legitimacy. My book, How to Prevent Coups d’état: Counterbalancing and Regime Survival (forthcoming, Cornell University Press), examines how the design of coercive institutions affects regime survival.

My research has been published in the Journal of Peace Research and Journal of Conflict Resolution. My writing has also appeared in Foreign Affairs, The Washington Post, and Political Violence @ a Glance. I am currently working on a new, National Science Foundation-funded project on the determinants of Civilian Support for Criminal and Political Armed Groups.

I received my PhD from the Department of Political Science at Yale University in 2014, and a BA from Columbia University in 2004. I worked previously as a Research Associate in U.S. Foreign Policy and International Law at the Council on Foreign Relations and as a Research Associate in the Fellows Program at the New America Foundation in Washington, D.C.

At Hamilton, I serve as the Director of the Justice and Security Program at the Arthur Levitt Public Affairs Center, and organize the Women in Political Science lecture series. I teach courses on international security, civil-military relations, civil war, and U.S. foreign policy.

Contact information

Erica De Bruin

Assistant Professor of Government

Hamilton College

198 College Hill Road

Clinton, NY 13323

Office: Kirner-Johnson Room 120

Office phone: (315) 859-4526

Email: edebruin@hamilton.edu

Twitter: @esdebruin