Rate My Professor Seden Akcinaroglu

Seden Akcinaroglu is a Professor in the Department of Political Science at Binghamton University, State University of New York at Binghamton, where she joined the faculty in 2008. She holds a BA and MA from Boğaziçi University, an MS from Northwestern University, and an MA and PhD from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Akcinaroglu specializes in international conflict and rivalries, with her research focusing on the linkages between expectations, informational problems, learning, and strategic action in the dynamics of civil wars or rivalries. Her past work addresses expectations of rival aid and the duration of war, natural disasters and rivalry relations, and the effectiveness of bluffing by external actors in civil wars. Her current project investigates how expectations in the intensity of rivalry with one foe affect the actions of a strategic state with others. Originally from Turkey, her interest in terrorism research stems from observations of patterns such as the Kurdistan Workers’ Party halting attacks following the 1999 earthquake.

Akcinaroglu teaches courses on international conflict and international political economy. Her scholarship has appeared in leading journals including the Journal of Conflict Resolution, International Interactions, Political Research Quarterly, and Conflict Management and Peace Science. Key publications include "Rebel interdependencies and civil war outcomes" (Journal of Conflict Resolution, 2012), "Expectations, rivalries, and civil war duration" (International Interactions, 2005, with E. Radziszewski), "Private military companies, opportunities, and termination of civil wars in Africa" (Journal of Conflict Resolution, 2013, with E. Radziszewski), "Avalanches and olive branches: A multimethod analysis of disasters and peacemaking in interstate rivalries" (Political Research Quarterly, 2011, with J.M. DiCicco and E. Radziszewski), "To instill fear or love: Terrorist groups and the strategy of building reputation" (Conflict Management and Peace Science, 2018, with E. Tokdemir), and the co-authored book "Private militaries and the security industry in civil wars: Competition and market accountability" (Oxford University Press, 2020, with E. Radziszewski). She has also contributed to interdisciplinary efforts predicting terrorist attacks by correlating major events, economic weakening, militarized disputes, and natural disasters with attack trends, finding that terrorists exploit crises for opportunities while considering reputation costs.