Welcome to the Law and Armed Conflict (LAC) Research Lab at Purdue University. The lab studies how law shapes armed conflict, governance, and peace, both within states and between them. Our work starts from a simple premise: states, rebels, and other armed actors all govern through rules, and the fit or clash between those rules helps explain why conflicts erupt, how they are fought, and whether peace endures. LAC builds new, theory-driven data to answer these questions. We begin with the argument and its observable implications, define concepts and coding rules accordingly, and only then collect data. Current projects measure the structural and environmental toll of war from satellite imagery, examine how property rights shape conflict and its resolution, and analyze the texts of post-war constitutions. We pair these data with fieldwork, archival research, and case studies, drawing on theoretical perspectives from political science, law, and economics. Students are research partners in all of this. Undergraduate and graduate students from political science and beyond take part in every stage of the research process: formulating questions, designing studies, collecting and coding data, and analyzing results, often as coauthors. Along the way, they learn to manage projects and to communicate findings to both scholarly and policy audiences.
PROJECTS
Armed Nonstate Actors Governance and Law Project Rebel Law and Conflict Resolution book project (Under Review)
Current Purdue UG RAs:
Timothy Brandon Irwin, Political Science, Professional Writing, and Pre-Economics
Barakah | Abdo-Baari, Political Science
“Law and the Legacies of Rebel Governance.'' with Sherry Zaks, PhD “Do Narco Rebels Engage in More Indiscriminate Violence” with Benjamin Torres (Purdue, PhD Candidate)
Post-Armed Conflict Constitutions Project Current works with Jennifer Brick Murtazashvili, PhD, Dmitrii Kofanov, PhD, and Charles Crabtree, PhD
Current Purdue UG RA:
Elizabeth Shelby Payne, Natural Resources & Environmental Science and Global Studies
Property Rights Project “Quasilegal Property Rights.” with Colin Harris, PhD, Ilia Murtazashvili, PhD, and Jennifer Brick Murtazashvili, PhD “Interstate Territorial Disputes, Property Rights, and Conflict Resolution.” with Stephen C. Nemeth, PhD and Andi Zhou, PhD
Satellite Data and Armed Conflict Project “Beyond the Visible Spectrum: Disaggregating Conflict Events through Multi-Source Remote Sensing” with Jiashu Hu (Purdue, PhD Student)
PEOPLE
Current Affiliates Graduate Research Fellow Jiashu Hu, PhD in Construction Management Technology Undergraduate Student Researchers Timothy Brandon Irwin, Political Science, Professional Writing, and Pre-Economics Barakah | Abdo-Baari, Political Science Elizabeth Shelby Payne, Natural Resources & Environmental Science and Global Studies Simran Singhal, Mechanical Engineering, Political Science (Minor) Hazel Stephens, Political Science and Psychology, Business Management (Minor) Former Affiliates Mitushi Mukherjee, PhD Candidate in Political Science, Graduate Research Fellow Sky Kunkel, PhD in Political Science Lauren Miranda Riina, Political Science and Global Studies Magdalaine Isabella Davis, Political Science and Italian Studies Leah Kerkhoff, Political Science and Spanish Caleb Mills, Political Science and International Relations Muhammad Faisal Azizi (Dartmouth College)