About

Alan J. Kuperman is an Associate Professor of Public Affairs at the LBJ School of Public Affairs. He holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, an M.A. in International Relations and International Economics from Johns Hopkins University, and an A.B. in Physical Sciences from Harvard University. His research focuses on ethnic conflict, military intervention, and nuclear nonproliferation. He teaches in the Master of Global Policy Studies program and is the founding coordinator of the Nuclear Proliferation Prevention Project. His scholarly work includes books such as 'Plutonium for Energy?' and 'Constitutions and Conflict Management in Africa,' along with articles like 'How Humanitarian Intervention Can Succeed' and 'Muscular Mediation and Ripeness Theory.' Kuperman has been a senior fellow at the U.S. Institute of Peace and a fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. His prior experience includes roles as legislative director for U.S. Rep. Charles Schumer, legislative assistant for U.S. Speaker of the House Thomas Foley, chief of staff for U.S. Rep. James Scheuer, senior policy analyst for the Nuclear Control Institute, and a fellow at the U.S. Agency for International Development. His work integrates policy process, international affairs, and diplomacy.

Research topics

• Political Science
• Sociology
• Law
• Psychology
• Political economy
• Law and economics
• Development economics
• Economics
• Social psychology

Selected publications

• How Humanitarian Intervention Can Succeed: Liberia’s Lessons for the R2P

  Civil Wars · 2023 · 4 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Political Science
  • Political Science
  • Sociology

  This article explores an unusually successful case of humanitarian intervention, in Liberia in 2003, to infer lessons for future implementation of the Responsibility to Protect (R2P).Multilateral intervention succeeded by avoiding two common errors.First, the United States did not encourage the rebels, even though they were fighting a reviled autocrat, but instead threatened them, thereby averting escalation.Second, regional actors offered asylum to the president and power-sharing to his subordinates, despite the regime's alleged war crimes, so they did not fight to the end.Thus, humanitarian outcomes were fostered by pursuing compromise and inclusivity rather than violent regime change.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• 9. Humanitarian Intervention

  Human Rights · 2022-07-14 · 1 citations

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding

  This chapter highlights the distinction between human rights and humanitarianism. Humanitarian intervention refers to the use of diplomatic, economic, and/or military resources by states or international organizations to protect civilians who are endangered in another state. The chapter notes the impossibility of attaining impartiality and neutrality when commencing humanitarian work during a civil war. Modern intervention often confronts human rights violations by naming, shaming, and coercing those who harm civilians. The chapter then recognizes the obstacles to effective and timely intervention such as political will and large-scale violence against civilians. It covers the case of Kosovo that showed how the international community should utilize its leverage to persuade oppressive states to meet the legitimate demands of nonviolent groups in an effort to simultaneously promote human rights and humanitarianism.

  PublisherDOI

• Moral hazard in Sudan’s ‘Two Areas’ – humanitarianism that perpetuates civil war

  Conflict Security and Development · 2022 · 1 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Political Science
  • Political Science
  • Sociology

  This article examines how the conflict since 2011 in Sudan’s ‘Two Areas’, the states of South Kordofan and Blue Nile, has been prolonged by a well-intentioned but counter-productive international response. The United States and other western countries, motivated by humanitarianism, imposed sanctions against Sudan’s regime and provided aid to rebel regions. This western response was fostered partially by disinformation – about the genesis of the conflict, the regime’s use of force, and the causes and extent of the humanitarian crisis. Western support incentivized the rebels to perpetuate their hopeless military campaign, which prolonged the displacement of an estimated one-third of civilians in the Two Areas. Only after the United States lifted some sanctions in 2017, and a popular revolution overthrew the regime in 2019, did U.S. officials belatedly identify rebel leader Abdelaziz al-Hilu as an obstacle to peace. The article concludes with lessons for ending the conflict in Sudan’s Two Areas and mitigating such civil wars elsewhere.

  PublisherDOI

• Open Access: Muscular Mediation and Ripeness Theory

  2022-06-15

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Muscular Mediation and Ripeness Theory

  Ethnopolitics · 2021 · 10 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Political Science
  • Sociology
  • Political Science

  William Zartman’s ‘ripeness’ theory says that parties to a violent conflict will not negotiate sincerely in the absence of a mutually hurting stalemate (MHS). In such circumstances, Zartman recommends a mediator employ coercion by escalating the conflict into a MHS, but the concept is not fully elaborated. Building on Zartman, this article specifies a new theory of ‘muscular mediation’, defined as a powerful mediator using coercion to achieve a mutual compromise that it formulates. The theory is evaluated in three cases from the 1990s: Bosnia, Rwanda, and Kosovo. The article finds that muscular mediation can work but also may backfire by magnifying violence against civilians, especially when all of three adverse conditions are present: (1) the coerced agreement threatens a vital interest of a party; (2) that party has the potential to escalate violence against the opposing side’s civilians; (3) the muscular mediator does not deploy sufficient military forces to deter or prevent such escalation. The article also explores why muscular mediation has been pursued under such adverse conditions. It concludes with advice for prospective muscular mediators.

  PublisherDOI

• Did the R2P Foster Violence in Libya?

  Genocide Studies and Prevention · 2019-06-01 · 8 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  In the early 1990s, the relationship between genocidal violence and international humanitarian intervention was understood simplistically. Such intervention was viewed as always a response to, and never a cause of, inter-group violence. Well-intentioned intervention was expected reliably to reduce harm to civilians. Thus, the only obstacle to saving lives was believed to be inadequate political will for intervention. This quaint notion was popularized in mass-market books, 1 and it later gave rise to the "Responsibility to Protect" norm. 2 By the mid-1990s, however, scholars had discovered that the causal relationship between intervention and genocidal violence was more complicated. The prospect of intervention sometimes incentivized violence by parties expecting to attract intervention to help their side in a domestic struggle. For example, a relatively weak faction might launch a rebellion or armed secession to provoke a government crackdown, in hopes of triggering intervention to help them achieve independence or control of the state.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Obama's Libya Debacle

  Foreign Affairs · 2019-02-18 · 17 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding

  An essay is presented on U.S. military intervention in Libya during the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama. The author reflects on the devolution of Libya into a failed state following the death of dictator Muammar al-Qaddafi and the intervention of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Emphasis is given to topics such as human rights violations, the treatment of civilians under Qaddafi, and the growing threat of terrorism.

  Publisher

• Humanitarian Hypocrisy: Civilian Protection and the Design of Peace Operations

  Political Science Quarterly · 2019-01-01 · 1 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Challenges of plutonium fuel fabrication: explaining the decline of spent fuel recycling

  International Journal of Nuclear Governance Economy and Ecology · 2019-01-01

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  This article presents key findings of the first comprehensive global study of the commercial use of plutonium as fuel for nuclear energy. Research was conducted in all seven countries that have engaged in the commercial production or use of plutonium Mixed-Oxide (MOX) fuel to replace traditional uranium fuel in thermal nuclear power plants: Belgium, France, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and the UK. Five of the seven countries already have decided to phase out commercial MOX activities. The price of thermal MOX fuel has proved to be three to nine times higher than traditional uranium fuel. Plutonium fuel also has sparked political controversy, due to safety and proliferation concerns, in four of the six countries where it has been used commercially. The article concludes with lessons for countries that are engaged in, or contemplating, the recycling of plutonium for nuclear energy, including in fast reactors.

  PublisherDOI

• Challenges of plutonium fuel fabrication: explaining the decline of spent fuel recycling

  International Journal of Nuclear Governance Economy and Ecology · 2019-01-01 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  This article presents key findings of the first comprehensive global study of the commercial use of plutonium as fuel for nuclear energy. Research was conducted in all seven countries that have engaged in the commercial production or use of plutonium Mixed-Oxide (MOX) fuel to replace traditional uranium fuel in thermal nuclear power plants: Belgium, France, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and the UK. Five of the seven countries already have decided to phase out commercial MOX activities. The price of thermal MOX fuel has proved to be three to nine times higher than traditional uranium fuel. Plutonium fuel also has sparked political controversy, due to safety and proliferation concerns, in four of the six countries where it has been used commercially. The article concludes with lessons for countries that are engaged in, or contemplating, the recycling of plutonium for nuclear energy, including in fast reactors.

  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Paul Leventhal

  5 shared

• Luis Moreno

  Universidad Carlos III de Madrid

  2 shared

• Michael Boyle

  2 shared

• Richard Caplan

  University of Oxford

  2 shared

• Victor Mauer

  2 shared

• Raymond Wang

  University of California, Irvine

  2 shared

• Sally N. Cummings

  Charles Darwin University

  2 shared

• Alan Sandry

  Swansea University

  2 shared

Labs

• Energy Policy CollaborativePI

Awards & honors

• Senior Fellow at the U.S. Institute of Peace (2013)
• Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Schola…