Michael Weintraub

I am Associate Professor in the Escuela de Gobierno at Universidad de los Andes in Bogotá, Colombia, and Acting Director of the Center for the Study of Security and Drugs (CESED), where I also direct CESED’s Security and Violence Area. In Spring 2024, I was a Visiting Scholar at the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation at the Harvard Kennedy School. I remain a Non-Resident Fellow at Ash.

My research agenda focuses on crime, political violence, and drug policy in Latin America, particularly in Colombia, Central America, Mexico, and Brazil. I am also interested in historical legacies of violence and how they affect contemporary outcomes. To study these and other topics I use a combination of primarily experimental and quasi-experimental methods. Prior to graduate school, I worked for three years on human rights and development, primarily in East and Southern Africa.

I was co-PI on a $5 million project supported by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) – El Salvador that sought to build regional institutional capacity on citizen security policies, promote evidence-based public policies, and disseminate best practices in the Northern Triangle. I was also PI on a National Science Foundation grant studying patterns of criminal governance in Colombia; co-PI on a Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs grant examining attitudes towards and experiences with the implementation of the Colombian peace agreement; and co-PI on a Research Council of Norway grant focusing on the Microfoundations of Conflict Escalation, among others.

My articles have been published or are forthcoming in the American Journal of Political Science, American Political Science Review, Journal of Politics, Nature Human Behaviour, Comparative Political Studies, Comparative Politics, Journal of Conflict Resolution, Journal of Peace Research, Conflict Management and Peace Science, Terrorism and Political Violence, Research & Politics, Journal of Theoretical Politics, and Critical Review. For more information on these and my working papers, please see my Research page.

In May 2014 I received my Ph.D. in Government from Georgetown University and have been a Predoctoral Fellow at Yale University’s Program on Order, Conflict, and Violence (2013-2014) and a Jennings Randolph Peace Scholar at the United States Institute of Peace (2012-2013). I was an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Binghamton University (SUNY) from 2014-2016.

Born and raised in the great state of New Jersey, I enjoy short fiction, antique maps and records, and playing jazz piano.