welcome to my website

I am a researcher and author on  military interventions, peacekeeping, and European security and defense policy. I currently work as Assistant Professor at Northwestern University (USA), specializing in international relations. 
 I also serve as the co-chair of the War & Society Working Group at Northwestern's Buffett Institute. 

I am on sabbatical leave during the academic year 2017-2018 and will spend most of my time as a Max Weber fellow at the European University Institute in Florence (Italy).

You will find my Northwestern profile here . Please also follow me on twitter @mephenke. 

MY AcADEMIC WORK

My current research focuses on multilateral coalition-building, fatalities in UN peacekeeping missions, and intervention decision-making. 

My academic work has been published (or is forthcoming) in Security Studies, International Studies Quarterly, International Peacekeeping, Providing for Peacekeeping, Canadian Foreign Policy Journal, and Conflict Management and Peace Science. My book manuscript “Constructing Cooperation: A Social-Institutional Theory of Multilateral Military Coalition-Building” is currently under review with Cornell University Press. 
​

PHOTOGRAPHY

In my free time, I am an ardent traveler and photographer. Please visit the photography section of this website so see a small selection of photographs I have taken around the world.