User:Stephen Long

I am Stephen Long, a political scientist specializing in international relations (international conflict and international security). In 2005, I received a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. This followed my M.A. (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2001) and B.A. (Furman University, 1999) in the same subject. I am currently Assistant Professor of Political Science at Kansas State University, a large public research university in Manhattan, Kansas. I teach courses on international relations, international conflict, and security studies. I also occasionally teach a course on Latin American Politics.

My research generally falls into the subfields that the American Political Science Association calls Conflict Processes and International Security. I have focused thus far on two general topics: the influence of states' historical relationships (rivalry, long-term cooperation, etc.) on their interactions, and the political causes and effects of states' military effectiveness (performance in war). In a 2003 piece in International Interactions, I argued that dyads (pairs of states) with histories of militarized interstate disputes would have longer wars that those without rivalrous histories because of a "lock in" effect occurring on the domestic level. In a 2004 piece co-authored with Steve Biddle (Council on Foreign Relations), we argued that democracies have been found to be more effective in battles not necessarily because of special traits of democracy, but possibly because of other factors commonly correlated with democracy, such as stable civil-military relations, investment in human capital (education, etc.), and cultural traits. In a forthcoming piece in the Journal of Peace Research (co-authored with Mark Crescenzi and Jake Kathman of UNC), we examine the connection between dyadic and extra-dyadic histories of conflict and cooperation and the probability of war onset.

My current research projects (under review or ongoing) examine the relationships between past military effectiveness and the reliability of a state's allies, democratic regime type/regime maturity and the development of hostile or cooperative histories of interaction, and the effect of histories of retaliation on the probability of cease-fire violation. I am also involved in the creation of a new quantitative measure of the conflictual or cooperative nature of interstate relationships and in a project that explores the opinion of military officers regarding the transformation of the U.S. military in the post-Cold War era.

I am active in professional conferences, primarily the American Political Science Assocation, Midwest Political Science Association, Peace Science Society, and International Studies Association annual meetings.

Recent Publications

“Reputation, History and War” (with Mark J.C. Crescenzi and Jacob D. Kathman). Forthcoming. Journal of Peace Research.

“Democracy and Military Effectiveness: A Deeper Look” (with Stephen D. Biddle). 2004. Journal of Conflict Resolution 48:4 (August), pp. 525-546.

“Time Present and Time Past: Rivalry and the Duration of Interstate Wars, 1846- 1985.” 2003. International Interactions 29:3 (July–September), pp. 215-236.