Kristen Harkness

Prof Kristen Harkness is a Professor at the School of International Relations, University of St Andrews, specializing in ethnic politics, conflict studies, and African security dynamics. She holds a PhD in Comparative Politics and International Relations from Princeton University and a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Notre Dame's Kroc Institute. Her research focuses on ethnicity's role in military loyalty, political instability, and democratization challenges in Africa, combining quantitative methods with archival data.

• Teaching modules include Rebellion and Revolution, Force and Statecraft, and International Security.
• Supervises PhD student Marcel Plichta.

Her research outputs include the "Ethnic Stacking in Africa Dataset", analyzing military loyalty mechanisms, and works on Cameroon's autocracy dynamics. She has authored books such as When Soldiers Rebel (2018) and contributed to journals like Conflict Management and Peace Science.

Key themes in her work include military adaptation in conflict, the link between ethnic armies and political instability, and the role of external security assistance in authoritarian regimes.