Robert Blair

About

Robert Blair is the Arkadij Eisler Goldman Sachs Associate Professor of Political Science and International and Public Affairs at Brown University. His research centers on international intervention and the consolidation of state authority after civil war, with a particular focus on the rule of law and security institutions. He directs the Civil Conflict and Democratic Erosion Lab at Brown and co-founded the Democratic Erosion Consortium, which includes over 70 universities across multiple countries. This consortium integrates research, teaching, and civic and policy engagement to address threats to democracy both in the United States and internationally. Blair's work explores critical questions such as restoring citizens' trust in security institutions after periods of state absence or abuse, predicting and preventing local violence during transitions to peace, and identifying threats to democratic norms and institutions. He has conducted research in diverse countries including Colombia, Brazil, Liberia, Uganda, Cote d’Ivoire, Egypt, Tunisia, and the US, supported by organizations such as the National Science Foundation, the US State Department, and the Hewlett Foundation. His scholarship has been published in leading academic journals, and his book "Peacekeeping, Policing, and the Rule of Law after Civil War" was published by Cambridge University Press in 2020. Blair holds a B.A. from Brown University, an M.Sc in conflict studies from the Universidad de los Andes in…

Research topics

• Political Science
• Sociology
• Law
• Economics
• Computer Science
• Political economy
• Public relations
• Criminology
• Geography
• Psychology

Selected publications

• Foreign Aid and Soft Power: Great Power Competition in Africa in the Early Twenty-first Century

  British Journal of Political Science · 2021 · 166 citations

  1st authorCorresponding

  Abstract Is foreign aid an effective instrument of soft power? Does it generate affinity for donor countries and the values they espouse? This article answers these questions in the context of Chinese aid to Africa and the competing aid regime of the United States. The study combines data on thirty-eight African countries from Afrobarometer, AidData, and the Aid Information Management Systems of African finance and planning ministries. The authors use spatial difference-in-differences to isolate…

  DOI

• Community policing does not build citizen trust in police or reduce crime in the Global South

  Science · 2021 · 117 citations

  Is it possible to reduce crime without exacerbating adversarial relationships between police and citizens? Community policing is a celebrated reform with that aim, which is now adopted on six continents. However, the evidence base is limited, studying reform components in isolation in a limited set of countries, and remaining largely silent on citizen-police trust. We designed six field experiments with Global South police agencies to study locally designed models of community policing using coo…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Peacekeeping, Policing, and the Rule of Law after Civil War

  2020 · 104 citations

  1st authorCorresponding

  The rule of law is indispensable for sustained peace, good governance, and economic growth, especially in countries recovering from civil war. Yet despite its importance, we know surprisingly little about how to restore the rule of law in the wake of conflict. In this book, Robert A. Blair proposes a new theory to explain how the international community can help establish the rule of law in the world's weakest and most war-torn states, focusing on the crucial but often underappreciated role of t…

  DOI

• Interventions to counter misinformation: Lessons from the Global North and applications to the Global South

  Current Opinion in Psychology · 2023-11-09 · 60 citations

  review1st author
  PublisherDOI

• Foreign Aid and State-Society Relations: Theory, Evidence, and New Directions for Research

  Studies in Comparative International Development · 2020 · 58 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  DOI

Frequent coauthors

• Laura Paler

  Inter-American Institute

  28 shared

• Jessica Gottlieb

  28 shared

• Benjamin S. Morse

  27 shared

• Hannah Baron

  Tulane University

  27 shared

• Alexandra Hartman

  University College London

  24 shared

• Christopher Blattman

  University of Chicago

  21 shared

• Sabrina Karim

  15 shared

• Lily L. Tsai

  Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  14 shared

Awards & honors

• Theda Skocpol Emerging Scholar Award (2025)

Similar researchers at Brown University

• Eric Patashnikh-20
• Michael Kennedyh-19
• Prerna Singhh-17