Michael Harsch

Michael Harsch
Associate Professor, Eisenhower School, National Defense University
Michael F. Harsch is an Associate Professor of National Security at the National Defense University, and a former Visiting Scholar with the Weatherhead Scholars Program. His research seeks to answer questions that are crucial for both theory and policy. He is currently completing a book manuscript, tentatively titled “Islands of Stability,” which explores how relatively peaceful regions emerge and persist in war-torn countries. It argues that local populations in fragile states are better off if they are governed by “bounded rulers”: political leaders who belong to a local majority group that is a national minority and, therefore, possess limited upward mobility. As a result, bounded rulers govern with a long time horizon and are able to enter into long-term cooperation with the local population, which improves security and basic services. The book leverages interviews with local elites in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Somalia, an original dataset on governors in these countries, and statistical estimations. A related article, “Bounded Rule and Regional Stability in Fragile States,” was published by the Journal of Politics in 2024.
Previously, Michael was a Visiting Assistant Professor of International Relations at Boston University and an Assistant Professor of Practice at New York University (NYU) in Abu Dhabi. He has also been a visiting researcher at the NYU Center on International Cooperation in New York, the Social Science Center (WZB) in Berlin, and the World Bank’s Global Center on Conflict, Security, and Development in Nairobi.
Research interests: cooperation; conflict; identity; state capacity; development