Humanitarian Disarmament
This research initiative focuses on efforts to ban or regulate weapons of war in the service of a more peaceful, humane world.
Nuclear Disarmament
The landmark Nuclear Ban Treaty came into force in January 2021, but no nuclear powers have signed. Will the treaty nonetheless affect the norms binding nuclear powers not to use nuclear weapons? Professors Charli Carpenter, Bernhard Leidner and Alexander Montgomery are analyzing public opinion data from an experimental survey with a team of undergraduate coders, to test the impact of the new nuclear ban treaty on the strength of nuclear non-use norms.
Drones.
Human Security Lab Doctoral Researcher Alexandria Nylen is completing her dissertation entitled Targeting Drones: Framing and Connectivity in Transnational Issue Networks. Her work explores how actors with differing levels of geopolitical power navigate transnational advocacy networks opposing the use of armed drones. Nylen’s dissertation draws on interviews with key informants, fieldwork in Islamabad, and an original text and picture dataset of over 100 advocacy documents.
Cluster Munitions.
Doctoral Affiliate Joseph Tyler Lovell, Graduate Affiliate Nathan Trin-Tranh and Professor Charli Carpenter presented a paper this Spring on the impact of the cluster munitions treaty on non-party states at the Conflict, Violence and Security working group. The working paper, “Beyond Compliance: The Effects and Effectiveness of the Cluster Munitions Treaty” examines shifts in both behavior and rhetoric and argues that treaties have impacts that go beyond legally binding signatories.
Landmines.
Doctoral Affiliate Catie Fowler, research assistant Isha Mahajan, and Professor Charli Carpenter are building a new dataset by coding Landmine Monitor reports, to track landmine usage by non-state armed groups. This data will contribute to a larger project on humanitarian norm-conforming behavior by armed groups.