Biography

Lawrence P. Markowitz is Professor of Political Science at Rowan University. He specializes in the study of state building, authoritarianism, and political violence, with a regional focus on post-Soviet Eurasia. His first book, State Erosion: Unlootable Resources and Unruly Elites in Central Asia (Cornell University Press, 2013), shows how economic resources explain the surprising durability of weak states. It was awarded Honorable Mention for the 2014 Ed A Hewitt Book Prize given by the Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies, for “an outstanding monograph on the political economy of Russia, Eurasia and/or Eastern Europe, published in the previous year.” His second book (with Mariya Y. Omelicheva), entitled Webs of Corruption: Trafficking and Terrorism in Central Asia (Columbia University Press, 2019), explains how state involvement in drug trafficking accounts for such low levels of terrorist violence in Central Asia. His work has also appeared in a variety of academic journals, including Comparative Political Studies, Comparative Politics, Democratization, Ethnic and Racial Studies, Post-Soviet Affairs, Social Science Quarterly, and Terrorism and Political Violence. His current projects explore the rise of far right mobilization in Russia and the political economy of repression in post-Soviet autocracies. His research has been supported by the Minerva Research Initiative, Fulbright Commission, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Social Science Research Council, International Research and Exchanges Board, and National Council for Eurasian and East European Research. Markowitz received his Ph.D. in Political Science from University of Wisconsin-Madison.