Timothy Jones

Email: timleej@umich.edu

Dissertation Title: Unraveling Rebel Strategies: Exploring Patterns of Violence in Civil War

Summary: My research and teaching interests are situated in international relations and security studies, with a focus on civil war, irregular warfare, intelligence, terrorism, and U.S. foreign policy. I study how states and non-state actors use force, adapt under pressure, signal resolve, and translate coercive capacity into political order, legitimacy, and institutional reach. My work examines these dynamics across insurgency, counterinsurgency, statebuilding, development assistance, special operations, and intelligence. Substantively, I ask when security interventions produce cooperation and governance, when they instead generate backlash or organizational adaptation, and how secrecy-dependent capabilities can support deterrence without undermining credible signaling, alliance reassurance, or escalation management. Methodologically, I combine quantitative analysis, geospatial conflict data, original event datasets, comparative case analysis, and practitioner-informed theory building. My teaching experience spans international relations, comparative politics, civil war, terrorism, intelligence, irregular warfare, special operations, analytic writing, data analysis, and social science computing. Across my research and teaching, I aim to connect theories of coercion, political violence, statebuilding, and deterrence to empirical evidence and contemporary security challenges.

Personal Website: timothyleejones.github.io