Wednesday, November 6 at 12 pm ET, Kamran Hakiman will present his research, “Losing Hearts and Minds: Ethnicity and Civilian Targeting in Myanmar’s Civil War.” This study investigates why states use indiscriminate violence against some civilian populations following guerrilla attacks but not others, focusing on Myanmar’s post-coup civil war. Hakiman uses township-level violence data to analyze how co-ethnicity and co-religion affect state responses in Myanmar, providing insight into the complex relationship between civilian reprisals and perceived population “winnability.” Read the paper HERE.
Kamran Hakiman is a doctoral candidate at the University of Pittsburgh’s Graduate School of Public and International Affairs. His work examines decentralized collective action and democratization, with field research experience in conflict zones across Myanmar, Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Kenya, and beyond. He holds a BA in Philosophy from Maryville College and an MPP from Harvard University.