Erica De Bruin
Associate Professor of Government
Erica De Bruin is director of the Policing Lab at the Arthur Levitt Public Affairs Center at Hamilton.
De Bruin’s research interests include civil-military relations, civil war, and policing. Her work focuses on the causes and dynamics of military coups, the spread of militarized policing, and the ways in which armed groups build legitimacy. She is the author of How to Prevent Coups d’état: Counterbalancing and Regime Survival (Cornell University Press, 2020). Her work has been published in journals including Armed Forces & Society, Journal of Peace Research, Journal of Conflict Resolution, PS: Political Science & Politics, Small Wars & Insurgencies, and Foreign Affairs, and featured in media outlets including the New Yorker, New York Times, Washington Post, Vox, Slate, MSNBC, and Bloomberg.
De Bruin is currently working on National Science Foundation-funded projects on the determinants of civilian support for armed groups and the global spread of militarized policing. She was previously a non-resident Fellow at the Modern War Institute at West Point, and Fellow with the Civil War Paths Project at the Centre for the Study of Civil War at the University of York. She received her Ph.D. from Yale University in 2014.
Recent Courses Taught
International Security
Nuclear Politics
Civil War
Civil-Military Relations
Introduction to International Relations
U.S. Foreign Policy
Distinctions
- Visiting Scholar, Institute for Security and Conflict Studies, George Washington University, 2023-24
- National Science Foundation Award, ”The Causes and Consequences of Global Police Militarization,” 2023-26
- Spencer Foundation, Small Research Grant, “Assessment of Methods for Soliciting Student Feedback on Teaching,” with Ann Owen and Steve Wu, 2023
- Stanton Foundation, Course Development Grant, “Nuclear Politics,” 2022
- Notable Year Achievement, Hamilton College, 2022
- Early Career Achievement, Hamilton College, 2021
- Non-Resident Fellow, Modern War Institute, United States Military Academy at West Point, 2020-21
- National Science Foundation Award, “Explaining Civilian Support for Political and Criminal Armed Groups,” 2020-23
- American Political Science Association Centennial Center Research Grant, “The Causes and Consequences of Militarized Policing,” 2020
- Class of 1966 Career Development Award, Hamilton College, 2019
- International Peace Research Association Foundation Grant, “How Coups Escalate to Civil War,” 2016-17
Selected Publications
- Book
Erica De Bruin. 2020. How to Prevent Coups d’état: Counterbalancing and Regime Survival. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. - Peer-reviewed articles and book chapters
Erica De Bruin and Michael Weintraub. 2023. “Did Covid-19 Change Armed Group Governance? Evidence from a Survey of Local Security Authorities in Colombia.” Bulletin of Latin American Research, doi:10.1111/blar.13507. - Erica De Bruin. 2023. “State-Militia Relations and Human Rights Violations,” in Paul Lorenzo Johnson and William Wittels, eds., Militias, States and Violence Against Civilians: Civic Vice, Civic Virtue. Routledge Studies in Civil Wars and Intra-State Conflict. London: Routledge.
- Heather Sullivan and Erica De Bruin 2023. “Teaching Undergraduates Research Methods: A ‘Methods Lab’ Approach.” PS: Political Science and Politics 56(2): 309-314.
- Erica De Bruin. 2022. “Policing Insurgency: Are More Militarized Police More Effective?” Small Wars & Insurgencies 33(4-5):742-766. Special Issue on Global Counterinsurgency and the Police-Military Continuum.
- Erica De Bruin and Zachary Karabatak. 2022. “Militarized Policing in the Middle East and North Africa.” The Journal of the Middle East and Africa 13(1): 93-110
- Jonathan Powell, Salah Ben Hammou, Amy Erica Smith, Lucas Borba, Drew Holland Kinney, and Mwita Chacha, and Erica De Bruin. 2022. “Forum: A Coup at the Capitol? Conceptualizing Coups and Other Anti-Democratic Actions.” International Studies Review 24(1): viab062.
- Erica De Bruin. 2022. “Power Sharing and Coups d’état in Post-Conflict Settings: Evidence from Burundi and Guinea-Bissau.” Armed Forces & Society, OnlineFirst, doi.org/10.1177/0095327X221108370.
- Erica De Bruin. 2021. “Mapping Coercive Institutions: A New Data Set of State Security Forces, 1960-2010.” Journal of Peace Research 58(2): 315-325.
- Erica De Bruin. 2019. “Will There Be Blood? The Determinants of Violence During Coups d’état.” Journal of Peace Research 56(6): 797-811.
- Erica De Bruin. 2018. “Preventing Coups d’état: How Counterbalancing Works.” Journal of Conflict Resolution 6(2): 1433-1458.
- Erica De Bruin and Clara Harding (Hamilton College, c’23). 2023. “Teaching Undergraduates to Work with Archival Documents.” Political Science Educator: Newsletter of the Political Science Education Section of the American Political Science Association 27(1): 56-61.
- Erica De Bruin and Maggie Dwyer, 2022. “How This Wave of African Coups Differs From Previous Ones.” Washington Post, The Monkey Cage, February 25.
- Erica De Bruin. 2022. “Militarized Policing in the Trump Era and Beyond,” H-Diplo | ISSF, Policy Series 2021: America and the World—The Effects of the Trump Presidency, Essay No. 61,
- Risa Brooks and Erica De Bruin. 2021. “18 Steps to a Democratic Breakdown.” Washington Post, Outlook, December 10.
- Erica De Bruin. 2021. “Police Militarization and its Political Consequences.” CP: Newsletter of the Comparative Politics Organized Section of the American Political Science Association, Volume XXXI, Issue 1 (Spring): 103-111.
- Erica De Bruin. 2020. “No, Trump is Not Attempting a ‘Coup.’ Here’s Why the Distinction Matters.” Washington Post, PostEverything/The Monkey Cage, November 11
- Erica De Bruin. 2020. “International Trends in Militarized Policing: New Data and Puzzles.” Political Violence at a Glance, July 23.
- Erica De Bruin. 2019. “Coups, Protests, and Violence: What to Expect in Bolivia.” Political Violence at a Glance, November 25.
- Erica De Bruin. 2019. “Why Does the United States Still Believe the Myth of the 'Good Coup” Washington Post, Outlook, November 13.
- Erica De Bruin. 2019. “Trump Wants Venezuela’s Military to Remove its President. But Maduro Has Made that Difficult.” Washington Post, The Monkey Cage, May 2.
- Erica De Bruin. 2014. “Coup-Proofing for Dummies: The Benefits of Following the Maliki Playbook.” Foreign Affairs Snapshot, July 27.
Professional Affiliations
American Political Science Association
International Studies Association
American Association of University Women
Young Professionals in Foreign Policy
Women in Conflict Studies
Appointed to the Faculty
2014Educational Background
Ph.D., Yale University
M.Phil., Yale University
M.A., Yale University
B.A. Columbia University
