About

Bridget L. Coggins is an Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Her research interests lie at the intersection of domestic conflict and international relations, including studies of secessionism, rebel diplomacy, civil war and terrorism, maritime piracy, illicit trafficking, and refugees. She authored the book Power Politics and State Formation in the 20th Century: The Dynamics of Recognition, published by Cambridge in 2014. Her second major project examines the international security consequences of state failure, utilizing large N data and detailed case studies of Somalia, North Korea, Colombia, and Afghanistan. Coggins's scholarly work has been published in various reputable outlets such as Foreign Policy Magazine, International Organization, Journal of Conflict Resolution, Journal of Global Security Studies, and Journal of Peace Research. She speaks Spanish, Mandarin, and a bit of Korean, and has previously taught at Dartmouth College.

Research topics

• Computer Science
• Political Science
• Sociology
• Law
• Business
• Law and economics
• Marketing
• Engineering
• Public relations
• Political economy
• Public administration

Selected publications

• Your silence speaks volumes: Weak states and strategic absence in the UN General Assembly

  The Review of International Organizations · 2024 · 11 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding
  • Political Science
  • Sociology
  • Political Science

  Abstract Country participation in one-state, one-vote forums like the United Nations General Assembly often reflects underlying power asymmetries and endogenous political processes. Voting alignment is undoubtedly an important preference indicator. However, this paper contends that it is incomplete; silence is politically significant as well. Weak states use absence as a form of institutional power that shields them from geopolitical pressure and competing-principals problems. While abstention is a public signal of neutrality that undercuts voting unanimity, the ambiguous intent of absence makes it a distinct form of political expression. We examine the politics of absences at the General Assembly, highlighting how states may be strategically absent from select votes for political reasons. Building on the Bailey et al. Journal of Conflict Resolution, 61 (2), 430–456, 2017 roll-call voting data, we distinguish strategic absences from other types of absence and provide evidence that such behavior is linked to US interests and competing-principals problems. Taking these non-random reasons for missingness into account provides a fuller picture of how weak states engage with international institutions and highlights how silence can be a consequence of larger political processes.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• The political and policy relevance of our research

  Edward Elgar Publishing eBooks · 2022

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Political Science
  • Political Science
  • Public relations

  This chapter takes on the pervasive opinion that IR scholars can only meaningfully influence policy at the most elite levels within government. In fact, a wide variety of potential access points exist. Scholars' policy influence attempts should therefore be tailored to their own interests and deep expertise, not geared towards reshaping them into pundits or policy wonks. Further, it presents value-neutral options, not requiring that scholarly policy-engagement be in the service of a government or international governmental organization. Surveying a range of possible opportunities - including their potential benefits, time commitments and pitfalls within academia - readers will come away with a more realistic and tractable set of options for their public-facing work.

  PublisherDOI

• Acknowledgments

  Cornell University Press eBooks · 2020

  • Computer Science
  • Computer Science
  DOI

• How do states respond to secession?: The dynamics of state recognition

  Dialnet (Universidad de la Rioja) · 2018-01-01

  article1st authorCorresponding
  Publisher

• Failing and the Seven Seas? Somali Piracy in Global Perspective

  Journal of Global Security Studies · 2016-11-01 · 28 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding

  Journal Article Failing and the Seven Seas? Somali Piracy in Global Perspective Get access Bridget L. Coggins Bridget L. Coggins Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journal of Global Security Studies, Volume 1, Issue 4, November 2016, Pages 251–269, https://doi.org/10.1093/jogss/ogw019 Published: 18 November 2016

  PublisherDOI

• Power Politics and State Formation in the Twentieth Century: The Dynamics of Recognition

  2016-04-28 · 122 citations

  book1st authorCorresponding

  From Kurdistan to Somaliland, Xinjiang to South Yemen, all secessionist movements hope to secure newly independent states of their own. Most will not prevail. The existing scholarly wisdom provides one explanation for success, based on authority and control within the nascent states. With the aid of an expansive new dataset and detailed case studies, this book provides an alternative account. It argues that the strongest members of the international community have a decisive influence over whether today's secessionists become countries tomorrow and that, most often, their support is conditioned on parochial political considerations.

  PublisherDOI

• The economics of state emergence and collapse

  Edward Elgar Publishing eBooks · 2016-08-24

  book-chapterOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Rational choice work on state emergence and collapse has significant unrealized potential. This essay discusses how scholars using a law and economics approach might make useful contributions to theorization on various topics regarding the dynamics of sovereign statehood in public international law. It begins by introducing the rational choice framework and our approach to the topic. It proceeds to examine the possibilities for future research, probing state emergence and recognition and the revocation of legal personality from failed states. The topic areas include an illustrative game based upon an empirical case and recommendations about how law and economics might contribute. A rational choice approach helps to clarify the stakes surrounding fundamental decisions regarding membership in the international community. Some communal norms seem to conform to international law while others depart from it. The chapter closes by noting the potential, but usually surmountable, obstacles to employing rational choice to matters of fundamental system dynamics.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• The History of Secession: An Overview

  2016-03-23 · 1 citations

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding

  For as long as political communities have existed, discontented minorities within them have attempted to break away. Indeed, the Ionians enlisted Greece to help them escape the Persians as far back as 479 BC (Herodotus 1997: 719–20). They were certainly not the first, and far from the last to make such an attempt. Negative experiences with governance routinely cause people to see themselves as distinct from their rulers; as bound to a common fate with those who share the same ascriptive or socio-cultural traits; and as members of communities better served by self-government than alien domination. Self-determination demands can take various forms including calls for increased civil and cultural rights, local autonomy, condominium, suzerainty, or confederal arrangements. A small fraction of these movements will seek total independence, resolving that their governors can not—or more likely will not—accommodate their desire for self-determination. Since the rise of the modern state, these claims of complete territorial and political independence are manifest in secessionism, wherein a nationalist movement attempts to formally withdraw from an existing state in order to create a new one. 1

  PublisherDOI

• Compliant Rebels: Rebel Groups and International Law in World Politics. By Hyeran Jo. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2015. 354p. $120.00.

  Perspectives on Politics · 2016-06-01

  article1st authorCorresponding

  An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content.

  PublisherDOI

• Rebel Governance in Civil War

  Cambridge University Press eBooks · 2015-10-05 · 779 citations

  book

  This is the first book to examine and compare how rebels govern civilians during civil wars in Latin America, Africa, Asia, and Europe. Drawing from a variety of disciplinary traditions, including political science, sociology, and anthropology, the book provides in-depth case studies of specific conflicts as well as comparative studies of multiple conflicts. Among other themes, the book examines why and how some rebels establish both structures and practices of rule, the role of ideology, cultural, and material factors affecting rebel governance strategies, the impact of governance on the rebel/civilian relationship, civilian responses to rebel rule, the comparison between modes of state and non-state governance to rebel attempts to establish political order, the political economy of rebel governance, and the decline and demise of rebel governance attempts.

  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Ana Arjona

  5 shared

• Michael C. Desch

  1 shared

• Ron Deibert

  Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  1 shared

• Michael Horowitz

  Royal Adelaide Hospital

  1 shared

• Till Förster

  1 shared

• P. K. GODFREY

  Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  1 shared

• Emanuel Adler

  Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  1 shared

• Piet Hut

  Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  1 shared