Michael Harsch

While at CASBS, Michael Harsch will be working on completing his second book, Islands of Stability: Subnational Security and Development in Fragile States. It explores how relatively peaceful regions emerge and persist in war-torn countries. The book leverages interviews with local elites in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Somalia, an original dataset on governors in these countries, and statistical estimations.

Harsch’s research interests include international security, state capacity, conflict, and development. He examines U.S. strategic leadership and joint decision-making with its allies, and the role of leading states, international organizations, and local leaders in promoting security and development in fragile, conflict-affected countries.

Harsch is associate professor of National Security at the National Defense University in Washington DC. He serves as course director for national security strategy & policy at the Eisenhower School and oversees curriculum development and course execution in this area. Harsch has also been a visiting scholar with Harvard University’s Weatherhead Scholars Program and is currently a faculty affiliate of the Weatherhead Research Cluster on Identity Politics.