Assistant Professor · Rice University

KaitlynRobinson

I study how international and organizational politics shape the behavior of militant groups and the dynamics of civil war — drawing on original datasets, fieldwork, and archival documents.

I earned my PhD in Political Science from Stanford University in 2022 and hold bachelor’s degrees in Political Science and History from the University of Michigan. I am currently the Principal Investigator on the Mapping Militants Project. Before graduate school, I worked for the U.S. Department of Defense's William J. Perry Center for Hemispheric Defense Studies.

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Book Project

Raising Rebellion: How Foreign States Organize and Shape Civil Wars

States frequently seek to engage in proxy conflict to achieve their foreign policy objectives. While many states provide support to armed groups already engaged in conflict against a target government, some states — such as Iran, Rwanda, and Russia — choose to form *new* armed groups to serve as their proxies. These new groups are organized with the direct help of state sponsors, receiving foreign assistance in mobilizing and recruiting members, selecting leaders, and building organizational structures and military capacity. Why do states create new armed groups rather than support existing ones? Drawing on a large-N dataset and archival case studies, this book introduces a theory of founding support — explaining why, how, and under what conditions states pursue this delegation strategy, and showing that foreign-founded groups prove more capable and more violent than independently formed ones.

Original Data Collection

Mapping Militants Project

Principal investigator since 2023. Qualitative long-form profiles on 130+ militant groups. Includes quantitative data on relationships among militant groups in select conflict zones.

Foreign Foundations Dataset, 1946–2019

Quantitative dataset coding external state involvement in armed group formation for 500+ armed groups. Includes bibliography and qualitative summaries.

Splintering & Leadership Change in Myanmar, 1939–2019

Quantitative dataset recording splintering and leadership change in 43 armed groups in Myanmar. Includes 150+ pages of qualitative information.

Rebel Leader Purging and Exit in Asia, 1989–2011

Quantitative dataset recording rebel leader exits and purging for 72 rebel groups in Asia.

Academic Publications

2026

Rebel Purges and Leader Survival: Maintaining Power through Purges in Rebel Organizations

Journal of Peace Research

2024

Militant Splinter Groups and the Use of Violence

Journal of Conflict Resolution 68, no. 2-3: 404–430

with Iris Malone