The Empirical Studies of Conflict Project (ESOC) convened a one–day organizational workshop at the Hoover Institution on March 30 to present research on insurgency, civil war, and other sources of politically motivated violence worldwide. (Project agenda)
The workshop brought together a diverse group of academics conducting cutting–edge research using microlevel conflict data along with military and civilian practitioners tasked with responding to current and emerging threats to international security.
Papers presented at the ESOC workshop focused on the economics of counterinsurgency in Iraq (see http://www.nber.org/papers/w14606), effective military support to counterinsurgency, and the relationship between economic conditions and quality of suicide terrorism.
The workshop closed with a candid discussion by a panel of national security practitioners on the needs of the war fighter and the practicalities of tapping academic expertise to support these needs.
Hoover Institution national security affairs fellow and U.S. Army colonel Joe Felter and Princeton University professor Jacob Shapiro, who codirect the ESOC Project, organized the workshop.
Before arriving at Hoover, Felter was director of the Combating Terrorism Center at the United States Military Academy, West Point. Shapiro, a former U.S. Navy officer, is assistant professor of politics and international affairs at Princeton and a Harmony Fellow at the Combating Terrorism Center at the United States Military Academy.
