Nicholas Sambanis appointed the Allen Professor of Political Science

Nicholas Sambanis, newly named as the Philip R. Allen Professor of Political Science, focuses his research on violent civil conflict; the interaction of economic development, political institutions, and civil war; and the uses of international organizations to prevent or resolve large-scale political violence.

Sambanis is the co-author, with Michael Doyle, of “Making War and Building Peace,” a book about United Nations peace-building, and “Breaking the Conflict Trap: Civil War and Development Policy.” He co-edited “Understanding Civil War: Evidence and Analysis,” two volumes of case studies on civil war, published by the World Bank. His articles have appeared in the American Political Science Review, World Politics, The Journal of Conflict Resolution, and Perspectives on Politics, among other publications. He is currently working on several article-length projects related to civil war as well as two book-length projects: The first analyzes the causes of conflicts over self-determination; the second is a book on international relations theory, applying insights from social psychological theories of identity formation to explain nation-building and war.

A graduate of Middlebury College, Sambanis earned his M.A. from Johns Hopkins University and his Ph.D. in international affairs from Princeton University. He served at the World Bank as a consultant and an economist before joining the Yale faculty in 2001 as assistant professor of political science, becoming a full professor in 2007. He was director of graduate studies in political science from 2009 to 2010, and currently is the director of the Program in Ethics, Politics, and Economics.

The Yale professor’s honors include the Russell Sage Foundation Visiting Scholar Fellowship and the Luebbert Article Award, presented by the American Political Science Association for the best article published in comparative politics. Sambanis has been awarded fellowships from the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Woodrow Wilson International Center, among other institutions.