Dr M. Rodwan Abouharb

Associate Professor in International Relations
Room: 2.01, 29/30 Tavistock Square
Tel: 020 7679 4922 (ext. 24922)
Email: m.abouharb@ucl.ac.uk
Twitter
Website

Biography

I’m an Associate Professor of Political Science at UCL. I previously worked in the Department of Political Science at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. My undergraduate degree is in Politics and Modern History from Brunel University, and I spent a couple of semesters at the State University of New York (SUNY) Brockport. As part of my undergraduate degree, I researched for an MP in the House of Commons, and a U.S. Senator in the United State Senate in Washington, D.C. I received my graduate degrees in Political Science from University at Buffalo (MA) and Binghamton University (PhD). In 2008 I was awarded the Rainmaker Award from Lousiana State University, and in 2004 I was awarded the Excellence in Graduate Research Award from Binghamton University. I am originally from Cardiff, South Wales, and I am of British and Syrian heritage.

My first book, co-authored with David Cingranelli, explores the human rights consequences of World Bank and IMF structural adjustment lending within the states. Currently, I’m working on my second book, co-authored with Bernhard Reinsberg, which examines the effects of international economic organisations at the individual level in the context of distributional politics. My research is published by Cambridge University Press, Journal of Politics, Review of International Organisations, International Studies Quarterly, Journal of Peace Research, and Journal of Human Rights, amongst others.

Research

My research places particular emphasis on understanding how both domestic and international socio-economic processes affect the human security of citizens around the world. My focus to date has been understanding the human rights and human security consequences of policies promoted by international organisations like the United Nations and other members of the UN family including the World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF), and World Trade Organisation (WTO).

Publications

Books

• Abouharb, M. R. and Cingranelli, D. (2007) Human Rights and Structural Adjustment. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Journal articles

2022

• Reinsberg, B. and Abouharb, M. R. (2022) ‘Partisanship, Protection and Punishment: How Governments Affect the Distributional Consequences of International Monetary Fund Programs’, Review of International Political Economy, pp. 1–29.  
• Abouharb, M. R. (2022) ‘War and Infant Mortality Rates’, Journal of Human Rights, pp. 1–17.

2020

• Abouharb, M. R. and Fordham, B. O. (2020) ‘Trade and Strike Activity in the Postwar United States’, Social Sciences, 9(11), pp. 198.

2019

• Abouharb, M. R., Cingranelli, D. and Filippov, M. (2019) ‘Too Many Cooks: Multiple International Principals Can Spoil the Quality of Governance’, Social Sciences, 8(5), pp. 139.
• Abouharb, M. R. and Duchesne, E. (2019) ‘Economic Development and the World Bank’, Social Sciences, 8(5), pp. 156.

2016

• Payne, C. and Abouharb, M. R. (2016) ‘The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Strategic Shift to Forced Disappearance’, Journal of Human Rights, 15(2), pp. 1–26.

2015

• Abouharb, M. R. and Aaronson, S. (2015) ‘The Liberal Illusion is not a Complete Delusion: The WTO Helps Member States Keep the Peace Only When it Increases Trade’, Global Economy Journal, 15(4), pp. 455–484.

2014

• Abouharb, M. R. and Aaronson, S. (2014) ‘Does the WTO Help Member States Improve Governance?’, World Trade Review, 13(3), pp. 1–36.

2013

• Abouharb, M. R. and Aaronson, S. (2013), ‘Is More Trade Always Better? The WTO & Human Rights in Conflict Zones’, Journal of World Trade, 47(5), pp. 1091–1128.
• Abouharb, M. R., Moyer, L. and Schmidt, M. (2013) ‘De Facto Judicial Independence and Physical Integrity Rights’, Journal of Human Rights, 12, pp. 367–396.

2011

• Abouharb, M. R. and Aaronson, S. (2011) ‘Unexpected Bedfellows: The GATT, the WTO and Some Democratic Rights’, International Studies Quarterly, 55(2), pp. 1–30.

2009

• Abouharb, M. R. and Cingranelli, D. (2009) ‘IMF Programs and Human Rights, 1981–2003’, Review of International Organizations,4(1), pp. 47–72.

2007

• Abouharb, M. R. and Kimball, A. L. (2007) ‘A New Dataset on Infant Mortality Rates, 1816–2002’, Journal of Peace Research, 44(6), pp. 743–754.

2006

• Sobek, D., Abouharb, M. R. and Ingram, C. G. (2006) ‘The Human Rights Peace: How the Respect for Human Rights at Home Leads to Peace Abroad’, Journal of Politics, 68(3), pp. 519–529.
• Abouharb, M. R. and Cingranelli, D. (2006) ‘Human Rights Effects of World Bank Structural Adjustment Lending, 1981–2000’, International Studies Quarterly, 50, pp. 233–262.

2002

• Regan, P. M. and Abouharb, M. R. (2002) ‘Interventions and Civil Conflicts: Tools of Conflict Management or Simply Another Participant?’, World Affairs. 165(1), pp. 42–54.

Book chapters

• Abouharb, M. R. and Cingranelli, D. (2017) ‘The Human Rights Effects of Participation in Program Lending Versus the CESCR’, in E. Sciso (ed.) Transparency and Democracy in the Bretton Woods Institutions. New York: Springer Publishing, pp. 205–238.
• Abouharb, M. R., Cingranelli, D. and Filippov, M. (2015) ‘Do Non–Human Rights Regimes Undermine the Achievement of Economic and Social Rights?’, in L. Haglund and R. Stryker (eds.) Economic, Social and Cultural Rights: Emerging Possibilities for Social Transformation. California: University of California Press, pp. 29–47.
• Abouharb, M. R. and Aaronson, S. (2014) ‘Does the WTO Help Member States Clean Up?’, in J. Auby, E. Breen and T. Perroud (eds.) Corruption and Conflicts of Interest: Comparative Law Insights. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, pp. 183–197.
• Abouharb, M. R. (2012) ‘International Financial Institutions and Their Impacts on Human Rights: Current and Prospective Research’, in T. Cushman (ed.) Handbook of Human Rights. London: Routledge, pp. 455–465.
• Abouharb, M. R. and Cingranelli, D. (2005) ‘When the World Bank Says Yes: Determinants of Structural Adjustment Lending’, in G. Ranis, J. R. Vreeland and S. Kosack (eds.) Globalization and the Nation State: The Impact of the IMF and the World Bank. London: Routledge, pp. 204–230.
• Abouharb, M. R. and Cingranelli, D. (2004) ‘Human Rights and Structural Adjustment: The Importance of Selection’, in S. C. Carey and S. C. Poe (eds.) Understanding Human Rights Violations: New Systematic Studies. Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing, pp. 127–146.

Teaching

I teach modules on rebellion, and economic and social rights. I would be interested in supervising PhD students who are asking theoretically important and empirically substantive questions linking domestic and international processes to governments’ human rights practices.