Selected Publications / Commentary

Mapping Anti-Muslim Information Manipulation and its Impact on Humanitarian Aid and Development George Mason University (2024)
This report maps the landscape of US-based nonstate actors that have engaged in information manipulation campaigns against Muslim-led humanitarian aid and development INGOs. These actors include think tanks, advocacy groups, and their funders. Their campaigns gained some traction on Capitol Hill and have had cumulative harmful effects on the operations and reputations of the targeted charities.

Political frustration in Northern Ireland has heightened tension around ‘marching season’ The Conversation (2021)
The circumstances of this year’s marching season align with what scholars call the “frustration-aggression hypothesis.” Originally articulated by social psychologists at Yale University in the late 1930s, it holds that the likelihood of frustration producing political violence increases with the availability of an obvious outlet – in this case, the marches on July 12 – and the perceived lack of nonviolent ways to make frustrations felt.

The Catholic Dimension of Irish Soft Power: Brexit and the Ancient Order of Hibernians Berkley Forum (2021)
The Ancient Order of Hibernians (AOH) is historically one of the Irish government’s important traditional civil society partners in the United States, although the relationship has not always been a smooth one. Its flagging relationship with the Irish government has been reinvigorated in a post-Brexit environment, as their priorities and interests overlap in defending the Good Friday Agreement.

U.S. and U.K. Perspectives on Religion and Belief British Council (2020)
The surveys in this report demonstrate that vast majorities of Brits and Americans agree that freedom of religion or belief is both a fundamental human right and a fundamental guiding principle of the UK and the US. However, the British Council’s meetings of experts working at the centre of religion and international affairs suggest that foreign policy bureaucracies remain ill-equipped to engage effectively with religious actors.

Patterns of British Government Engagements: The Second Image Reversed? Cambridge University Press (2015)
Over the last 25 years, there has been considerable variation in how successive British governments have engaged with Muslim organizations that make representative claims. How do we account for this variation? I argue that these variations can be most consistently explained by the effects of international political events and short-term perceived security imperatives, rather than concerns for maintaining social cohesion.