Roger Petersen

Roger Petersen

Arthur and Ruth Sloan Professor of Political Science, Emeritus

E40-493

617-253-6781

Biography

Roger Petersen holds BA, MA, and PhD degrees from the University of Chicago. He has taught at MIT since 2001 and is the Arthur and Ruth Sloan Professor of Political Science Emeritus. Petersen focuses on within-state conflict and violence. He has written four books: Resistance and Rebellion: Lessons from Eastern Europe (Cambridge University Press, 2001), Understanding Ethnic Violence: Fear, Hatred, Resentment in Twentieth Century Eastern Europe (Cambridge University Press, 2002), Western Intervention in the Balkans: The Strategic Use of Emotion in Conflict (Cambridge University Press, 2011), and “Death, Domination, and State-Building: The US in Iraq and the Future of American Military Intervention, (Oxford University Press, 2024).” He has taught classes on military intervention, civil war, civil-military relations, and emotions in politics, as well as classes focusing on regional conflicts in the Balkans and the Middle East.

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