Reyko Huang

Associate Professor
Bush School of Government & Public Service
Texas A&M University
4220 TAMU
College Station, TX 77843-4220
[email protected]

I am an Associate Professor in the Department of International Affairs at the Bush School of Government & Public Service, Texas A&M University. My research examines armed conflict and international politics, state-building, rebel politics, and international security.

My first book, The Wartime Origins of Democratization: Civil War, Rebel Governance, and Political Regimes (Cambridge University Press), examines why some civil wars have the effect of launching countries on new and more democratic paths while others reinforce the status quo; it explores the extent to which rebel war-making galvanizes ordinary people into political action.

Other recent and ongoing research projects focus on rebel diplomacy, rebel governance, transnational social networks among rebel groups, and sovereignty in contested territories. I use a range of research methods in my work, including statistical analysis using original cross-national data, structured comparative case studies, field interviews, and archival work.

As part of my research, I created the Rebel Governance Dataset (RGD) and co-created the Rebel Organization Leaders (ROLE) Database.

I teach courses on contemporary civil wars, state-building and state failure, and transnational security. I advise doctoral students in political science, military history, and political geography. For my teaching, I was awarded the 2019 AFS College-Level Distinguished Achievement Award and the 2022 Silver Star Faculty Award at Texas A&M.

Previously, I was a Zukerman Fellow at the Center for International Security and Cooperation at Stanford University. My research has also been supported by a Peace Scholar fellowship from the United States Institute of Peace, the Minerva Research Initiative, and the Institute for Humane Studies. From 2020-2023 I served as an associate editor for International Studies Quarterly.

I hold a Ph.D. in political science from Columbia University, MPA from the School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University, and BA from Cornell University. I was born in Japan and grew up in Japan and Hong Kong. 

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