Sunrise over the Leonid Bykov memorial statue in Kyiv, Ukraine (September 2014).
I am a Professor of Political Science at the School of Global Policy and Strategy at the University of California at San Diego. My main area of research is comparative state-building dynamics.
My first book, Warlords and Coalition Politics in Post-Soviet States, was published in 2015 by Cambridge University Press in the Cambridge Studies in Comparative Politics series. The book was recognized as the Best Book in the Social Sciences by the Central Eurasian Studies Society and also won the Furniss Award. More commentary is here.
My second book, Doing Global Fieldwork: A Social Scientist’s Guide To Mixed-Methods Research Far From Home (Columbia University Press, 2021), is a practitioner’s guide intended for graduate students considering fieldwork.
My third book, joint work with Dominique Arel, is Ukraine’s Unnamed War: Before The Russian Invasion of 2022 (Cambridge University Press, 2023). Dominique and I introduced the project briefly in this video and in more depth at the Quincy Institute. Teachers (or game theory enthusiasts) seeking an exposition of the model might enjoy this talk on “The Minsk Game” at the Mershon Center (as well as the associated Public Choice article, now open access). If game theory is not your cup of tea, but you are still interested in how the book can be useful as a tool for decoding the war of narratives, I gave a different expository talk at Stanford (CISAC). More commentary is here.
Peer-Reviewed Articles
“Ethnic Stacking in the Russian Armed Forces? Findings From A Leaked Dataset” (with D. Sichinava and C. Berglund). Post-Soviet Affairs, 1–20. Available Online: https://doi.org/10.1080/1060586X.2025.2484150. Accepted March 14, 2025. Replication Data.
“The Minsk Game” (with D. Arel). Public Choice. Accepted January 2025. Available Online: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11127-025-01259-4
“Side-Switching as State-Building: The Case of Russian-Speaking Militias in Eastern Ukraine” (with A. Chinchilla). Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, 2021. 47(9), 1127–1146. https://doi.org/10.1080/1057610X.2021.2013760
“Poverty and Economic Dislocation Reduce Compliance with COVID-19 Shelter-in-Place Protocols” (with A. Wright, K. Sonin, and J. Wilson). Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, December 2020, Volume 180, 544-554. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2020.10.008
“Social Media And Russian Territorial Irredentism: Some Facts and A Conjecture” (with Z. Steinert-Threlkeld), Post-Soviet Affairs, Winter 2020, Volume 36, Issue 2, 101-121. doi/full/10.1080/1060586X.2019.1701879.
"Calling Mogadishu: How Reminders of Anarchy Bias Survey Participation" (with E. Denny), Journal of Experimental Political Science, Summer 2019, Volume 6, Issue 2, 81-92.
"Spies Like Us" (with C. Schuster), Ethnography, September 2018, Volume 19, Issue 3, 411-430.
"With Friends Like These: Brinkmanship and Chain-Ganging in Russia's Near Abroad" (with D. Maliniak), Security Studies, Summer/Fall 2016, Vol. 25, No. 4, 1-23. Replication data.
"Did Georgian Voters Desire Military Escalation in 2008? Experiments & Observations" (with D. Maliniak), Journal of Politics, January 2016, Volume 78, No. 1, 265-280. Replication data.
"Language Hierarchies in Georgia: An Experimental Approach" (with T. Blauvelt and C. Berglund), Caucasus Survey, February 2016, Vol. 4, Issue 1, 44-62. Replication data.
"Representative Surveys in Insecure Environments: A Case Study of Mogadishu, Somalia" (with N. Lidow), Journal of Survey Statistics and Methodology, 2014, Vol. 2, No. 1, 78-95.
"Intended and Unintended Consequences of Democracy Promotion Assistance to Georgia After The Rose Revolution" (with D. Hidalgo), Research and Politics, April-June 2014, Vol. 1, No. 1, 1-13. Replication data.
"Commitment Problems or Bidding Wars? Rebel Fragmentation as Peace-Building", Journal of Conflict Resolution, April-June 2012, Vol. 56, No. 1, 118-149. Replication data.
Book Chapters
“Beyond ‘Bluffing’: The Weaponization of Uncertainty in Russia’s War Against Ukraine” (with N. Savelyeva) in A. Shesterinina and M. Matejova, Uncertainty in Global Politics, 2023, Routledge.
“Being Watched and Being Handled," in B. Bliesmann de Guevara and Morten Boas, Doing Fieldwork in Areas of International Intervention, 2020, Bristol University Press.
"Hobbesian Neopatrimonialism," in Tajikistan on the Move: Statebuilding and Societal Transformations, 2018, Lexington Press.
"Consolidating a Weak State After Civil War: A Tajik Fable" in J. Heathershaw and E. Schatz, Paradox of Power: Logics of State Weakness in Eurasia, 2017, University of Pittsburgh Press.
"Prison States and Games of Chicken" in S. Desposato, Ethics and Experiments: Problems and Solutions for Social Scientists and Policy Professionals, 2015, Taylor and Francis.
I teach at the School for Global Policy and Strategy at the University of California at San Diego. Substantive classes focus on topics relevant to international security for future practitioners and citizens.
To introduce formal language, I created a 6-part lecture series: Introductory Concepts (Part 1), Prisoner’s Dilemma (Part 2), Coordination & Stag Hunt (Part 3), Hawk Dove (Part 4), Delegation (Part 5), Institutionalized Bargaining (Part 6). This video on how to use the internet for basic research has also received positive comments.
As a teaching resource for graduate students considering fieldwork, or those interested in an archive of voices from the comparative politics field, I co-host the Raiders of the Lost Archive podcast (along with Christian Davenport).
I have served as the Academic Chair of the Global Leadership Initiative at UCSD since 2014. I have also been an advisor for twelve successfully-defended Ph.D. dissertations in both political science and economics:
Tiffany Chou, Economics, UCSD (2011), U.S. Department of Treasury.
Christopher Fariss, Political Science, UCSD (2013). Professor, University of Michigan.
Cameron Brown, Political Science, UCSD (2014). AIPAC (Jerusalem).
Blake McMahon, Political Science, UCSD (2015). U.S. Air Force Research Institute.
Kara Downey, Political Science, Stanford University (2015). Bay Area Private Sector.
Will Hobbs, Political Science, UCSD (2016). Assistant Professor, Cornell Univeristy.
David Lindsey, Political Science, UCSD (2016). Associate Professor, Baruch College (CUNY).
Zachary Breig, Economics, UCSD (2017). Assistant Professor, School of Economics at the University of Queensland.
Adam Fefer, Political Science, UCSD (2023). Visiting Researcher at the University of Michigan.
John Porten, Political Science, UCSD (2023). Research Director, San Diego Supercomputer Center (UCSD).
Michael Seese, Political Science, UCSD (2023). Lecturer, San Diego State University.
Kevin Rossillon, Political Science, UCSD (2024). U.S. Air Force.
If you want to reach me, email: jdriscoll@ucsd.edu.
Mailing Address:
Jesse Driscoll
C/O School of Global Policy and Strategy (UCSD)
9500 Gilman Drive
La Jolla, CA, 92093
Sunrise over the Black Sea in Sukhumi, Abkhazia (December 2007).
