Kristin Bakke

Kristin M. Bakke is Professor of Political Science and International Relations at University College London (UCL). She is currently Chair of the Conflict Research Society and has served as Associate Editor at the Journal of Peace Research for many years. At the heart of Kristin's research are questions about the relationship between violence and political order, focusing on the interactions between states, opposition groups, and civilian populations. She has addressed questions such as why conflicts turn violent, the conditions under which certain institutional designs can help preserve peace, how informal wartime institutions and experiences of violence shape post-war societies, why states impose restrictions on civil society (and with what consequences), how de facto states seek to establish authority in the shadow of their ‘parent’ states and external patrons, and how ordinary people in Russia’s ‘near abroad’ navigate geopolitical competition. She is the author of the book Decentralization and Intrastate Struggles and numerous academic journal articles, and she regularly writes pieces also for a general audience. Kristin joined the Department of Political Science at UCL in 2009, where she co-founded the Conflict & Change research cluster. Prior to joining UCL, she was Assistant Professor at Leiden University and a post-doctoral fellow at Harvard. She has also been an affiliate researcher at the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO). She holds a PhD from the University of Washington, Seattle.