Rachel Hilburger
Pronouns: she/her/hers
Research Mentor(s): Corina Simonelli, PhD Candidate
Research Mentor School/College/Department: Political Science and Public Policy, College of Literature, Science, and the Arts
Presentation Date: Thursday, April 22, 2021
Session: Session 1 (10am-10:50am)
Breakout Room: Room 4
Presenter: 4
Abstract
With the threat of terrorism constantly evolving, anti-terrorist policy is constantly in need of reevaluation. The utilization of economic means to stifle the actions of violent groups varies in prominence by region and through time, and never before has a comprehensive data set been collected detailing its employment against specific groups during particular years. “The Financing and Counter Financing of Non-Violent State Actors Project” supervised by PhD candidate Corina Simonelli intends to create such a dataset and reveal patterns in the utilization of economic counterinsurgency tactics as they vary through time and across groups. Coders have been presented a list of violent actors and tasked with utilizing an evolving list of search terms and database Nexis Uni to gather news articles dating between 1990 and 2018. By streamlining the processes by which researchers sift through large sums of articles, evaluate convoluted information, and translate qualitative data into quantitative, a thorough codebook is being developed to allow for consistency and replication. While a sufficiently large dataset has not yet been achieved, the research team expects to witness variance in the prominence of particular counterinsurgent tactics when comparing groups operating across the globe and through time. This information will yield insight into the effectiveness of economic counterinsurgency when coupled with knowledge on the persistence of violent activity. Such information is valuable for policymakers and will influence which tactics are employed to thwart violent activity on regional and global scales.
Authors: Rachel Hilburger, Corina Simonelli
Research Method: Library/Archival/Internet Research
