Erica De Bruin

I am an Associate Professor of Government at Hamilton College, where my research focuses on civil-military relations, civil war, and policing. Starting July 2022, I am also serving as Associate Chair of the Government Department.

My book, How to Prevent Coups d’état: Counterbalancing and Regime Survival (Cornell University Press, 2020) examines the coup-proofing strategies rulers use to remain in power. My research has been published or is forthcoming in the Journal of Peace Research, Journal of Conflict Resolution, PS: Political Science & Politics, Armed Forces and Society, Small Wars & Insurgencies, International Studies Review, and The Journal of the Middle East and Africa, as well as Foreign Affairs, The Washington Post, and Political Violence at a Glance. It has also been mentioned in the New Yorker, New York Times, Washington Post, Newsweek, Vox, Slate, Bloomberg, and MSNBC, among other places.

I am currently working on a National Science Foundation-funded project on the determinants of civilian support for criminal and political armed groups in Colombia, as well as a project on the causes and consequences of global police militarization supported by the American Political Science Association's Centennial Center.

I received a 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. During the 2020-2021 academic year, I was a Non-Resident Fellow at the Modern War Institute at the United States Military Academy at West Point.

At Hamilton, I direct the Justice and Security Program at the Arthur Levitt Public Affairs Center, and teach courses on international security, civil-military relations, civil war, and nuclear politics.