Dr Christine Cheng (DPhil, MPA, BASc)

Post: Bennett Boskey Fellow in Politics and IR at Exeter College

Introduction

Christine Cheng is the Bennett Boskey Fellow in Politics and International Relations at Exeter College. She completed her DPhil in Politics at the University of Oxford (Nuffield College). Her dissertation was entitled: Extralegal Groups, Natural  Extralegal Groups, Natural Resources, and Statebuilding in Post-Conflict Liberia. She conducts research on post-conflict transitions, African politics, corruption, and women in politics. Christine was one of the first academics on the ground in Liberia after the war ended in 2003. She spent six months in Liberia conducting field research, with visits to Sierra Leone and Cote d'Ivoire. 

Christine has worked for the UN, the World Bank, and the Wildlife Conservation Society. She has an MPA from the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University and BASc in systems design engineering from the University of Waterloo. In 2007-08, she was a visiting scholar at Yale's Political Science Department, joining the Order, Conflict and Violence Program.

She co-edited (with Dominik Zaum) the book: Corruption and Peacebuilding (Routledge, Sept 2011).

Research Areas and Interests

Christine's doctoral research examines the phenomenon of extralegal groups. She studies them in the context of post-conflict Liberia, where ex-combatant groups have taken over natural resource areas in the aftermath of war. She argues that groups like these pose a challenge for local security and statebuilding. She talks about her research in greater detail at http://www.international.gc.ca/cip-pic/fellowship-bourse/video/cheng.aspx?lang=eng

Christine’s other research interests include failed and fragile states, peacekeeping and peacebuilding, the UN, conflict financing and informal actors. She has conducted field research in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Côte d’Ivoire, South Africa and Guatemala. She is also a methodological pluralist, conducting both qualitative and large-N quantitative studies.

Previous Posts Held

2009 Cadieux- Léger Fellow at Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada

Teaching Responsibilities

Christine teaches Introduction to International Relations (IR214) to PPE students and also to visiting students participating in the Williams-Exeter Exchange Programme.

Publications

¤ Forthcoming, September 2011. Co-edited with Dominik Zaum, Corruption and Peacebuilding, Routledge.

* Forthcoming. "Informal Actors and Post-conflict Statebuilding" in M.Berdal and D.Zaum, Political Economy of Statebuilding: Power After Peace, Routledge.

¤ Forthcoming, April 2011. With Dominik Zaum, “Corruption in Post-Conflict Transitions and the Role of Natural Resources” in C. Bruch, W.C. Muffett, and S. Nichols, Governance, Natural Resources, and Post-Conflict Peacebuilding, Earthscan.

¤ Forthcoming. With Margit Tavits. “Informal Influences in Selecting Female Political Candidates”, Political Research Quarterly. Prepublished November 17th, 2009 DOI:10.1177/1065912909349631.

¤ 2008. Co-editor (with Dominik Zaum), Special Issue of International Peacekeeping on Post-Conflict Peacebuilding and Corruption, Vol. 15, No. 3.

¤ 2008. With Dominik Zaum, “Introduction: Key Themes in Peacebuilding and Corruption”, International Peacekeeping, Vol. 15, No. 3

¤ 2008. With Dominik Zaum, Corruption and Post-conflict Peacebuilding, Working Paper for the Program on States and Security, New York.