Welcome!
I am a Ph.D. candidate in Security Studies at the School of Politics, Security, and International Affairs at the University of Central Florida. My research is focused on the intersections of civil-military relations, coup politics, authoritarianism, and democratization – with a regional focus on the Middle East & North Africa. My dissertation demonstrates the dynamics and consequences of civilian involvement in military coups. Specifically, I highlight the role of civilian constituencies in shaping post-coup political orders based on their sources of power. I use mixed methods to build and test my theory, relying on an originally-built dataset on civilian involvement in military coups between 1950-2017 and rich qualitative evidence from post-colonial Sudan and elsewhere.
To date, my research has been published or is forthcoming in peer-reviewed journals such as International Studies Review, Armed Forces & Society, Africa Spectrum, and Journal of Global Security Studies. My public-facing scholarship has been published in outlets such as The Washington Post, Just Security, The Loop, Political Violence at a Glance, The Cairo Review, and Tawazun: Index of Arab Civil-Military Relations. My writing and research have been cited in high-profile, non-academic outlets around the world like The Washington Post, Der Spiegel, Deutsche Welle, La Nacion, Dabanga Sudan, and The Congressional Research Service. I currently serve as Co-Chair of the American Political Science Association’s Committee of Graduate Student Status in the Discipline. In addition, I am co-founder of the global online initiative, Jam3a: a Virtual MENA Workspace for Grad Students & Early Career Scholars, and founder/coordinator of Memoirs of the Middle East & North Africa. I also serve as a regular contributor at Arrested Dictatorship. I have also served as a Resident Graduate Fellow at the Prince Mohammed Bin Fahd Program of Strategic Research and Studies and The India Center. My research is currently funded by the American Political Science Association.
Salah Ben Hammou, M.A. 