Political Science Doctoral Candidate at Binghamton University

Ph.D. expected in May of 2012.

Broadly stated, my research program targets the intersection of political economy and armed conflict. My dissertation analyzes the influence that government finance strategies exert on political decisions to engage in military conflict. The central theme of the dissertation is that leaders with the opportunity to borrow funds for military expenditure, by increasing sovereign debt, have greater foreign policy autonomy than states that must rely on alternative fiscal strategies. Leaders that increase taxes, redirect government spending or expand the money supply risk macroeconomic instability or disrupting an internal fiscal bargain, which threatens their political survival. While scholars have identified sovereign creditworthiness as a supplement to military power, I stress the importance of government finance in domestic decisions to engage in conflict.