Nicholas Sambanis

Nicholas Sambanis, assistant professor of political science at Yale University, will study the political economy of civil war in many countries between the years of 1945 and 2000 to test hypotheses related to the onset, duration, and recurrence of civil strife. To investigate the complexity of civil war, Sambanis has developed a model that offers an explanation of how and why a society transitions from one phase of civil war to the next; the model provides a way to test whether the phases share common risk factors. Sambanis will end his book with a detailed discussion of policy interventions that could help prevent civil war.