Barbara Elias: Research Summary
Overview
Barbara Elias’s research centers around insurgency and counterinsurgency warfare. Using primary source national security documents, she analyzes the strategic behavior of local allies in proxy counterinsurgency conflicts such as the US wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Her interests include US foreign policy, national security, alliance politics, military intervention, power asymmetries, race and international relations, Islam and politics, and Middle Eastern politics. Her book, Why Allies Rebel: Defiant Local Partners in Counterinsurgency Wars (Cambridge University Press, 2020), analyzes factors that motivate local partners, such as the US-allied regime in Kabul between 2002 and 2021, to comply with or defy the policy demands of larger intervening partners, such as the US. Other articles she has written include “Why the Taliban Won’t Quit al Qaeda: Don’t Expect the Taliban to Compromise their Terrorist Allies” (Foreign Policy, 2021), “Local Minorities in Counterinsurgency: US Approaches to Baghdad and Saigon Regarding Marginalized Populations” (Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, 2019), and “The Big Problem of Small Allies: New Data and Theory on Defiant Local Counterinsurgency Partners in Afghanistan and Iraq” (Security Studies, 2018).
Current Work
Currently, she is starting a new research project on the colonial legacies of modern counterinsurgency strategy. This will entail exploring counterinsurgency doctrine from a number of intervening forces, including US, French, British, Colombian, and Cuban documents.
Student Opportunities
She encourages students to get involved in two ways. First, they can take her classes, a few examples of which include Weapons of the Weak, Race and International Relations, International Security, and Islam and Politics. Second, they can help her dissect complex problems in international security by offering their insights and perspectives.