We are pleased to announce that Prof. Amanda Murdie will be presenting her paper “Civil-Military Relations and Human Rights" this Friday at noon at Posvar 4500 (please see below the abstract). Prof. Murdie is the Dean Rusk Scholar of International Relations and Professor of International Affairs in the School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Georgia.  She is also the editor-in-chief of International Studies Review. 

Does civil-military conflict affect human rights violations within a state? Existing research on state capacity and human rights demonstrates that in places where principals have low levels of control over their agents, we should expect greater physical integrity rights abuses. We apply the logic of principal-agent theory in considering how levels of civilian control of the military relate to human rights practices. In places where civilian control of the military is weak, we expect that the military has a freer hand in acting domestically, and as a result will be more likely to violate human rights. In places where civilians have tighter control of the military, we expect fewer human right abuses. We also expect that this relationship is conditioned by domestic factors that give the civilian and military leadership an incentive to repress. We test our hypotheses on a global sample of states, using data on civil-military relations and physical integrity rights.