Judith Kelley, Assistant Professor of Public Policy Studies and Political Science  

Judith Kelley

Office Location: 237 Sanford Inst Bldg
Office Phone: 919.613.7343
Email Address: judith.kelley@duke.edu
Web Page:http://www.pupress.princeton.edu/titles/7875.html

Areas of Expertise:
International

Education:
PhD, Harvard University, 2001
MPP, Harvard University, 1997
B.A. with honors and distinction, Stanford University, 1995

Research Categories: International Relations, European Integration, Democracy and Human Rights, International Organizations, international delegation, Election monitoring

Research Description: My main project right now is on international election observation. This is a global large-scale project funded by the National Science Foundation. The data gathered for this project allows me to study a number of interesting quetions about the strategic behavior of international monitors, the responses of governments to monitoring, the effect of monitors on the quality of elections and on violence during elections, and much more. Importantly, this data also provides the scholarly community with more detailed data on the quality of elections, the legal environment for elections and the conduct of the election campaign than has ever existed.

More generally, my research asks how international actors can influence government behavior, why governments respond to external pressure, and thus what international strategies yield the greatest leverage on governments.

Some of my work focuses on the ability of external actors to promote domestic reforms. Thematically this work has focused on the efforts of European institutions to get governments to adopt ethnic minority friendly legislation, on the EU's New European Neighborhood Policy towards its border states, and recently also on election monitoring.

Other work of mine focuses on how governments respond to external pressure not for domestic reforms, but for certain behavior on the international scene. Thus my work on the International Criminal Court examines why some governments responded to US pressure to sign bi-lateral non-urrender agreements while others did not. I have also examined European responses to U.S. pressure to join the war in Iraq. In all this work, the question is whether external actors can influence governments and if so how?

This question is not only important from a policy perspective, but it also speaks to fundamental questions in the intersection of international relations and domestic politics about whether governments base their behavior on pure rational payoff calculations, whether they care about their reputations, and whether socialization and long-term interaction with IGO and NGO actors have an independent effect of government behavior.

Another project of mine is in collaboration with Curtis Bradley at the law school. We held two conference on international delegation that brought top lawyers and poltical scientists to Duke. The result with be published in the Duke law journal, Law and contemporary problems

Typical Courses Taught:

Representative Publications   (More Publications)

  1. J. Kelley. "Assessing the complex evolution of norms: the rise of international election monitoring." International Organization 62 (April, 2008): 221-255.  [abs]
  2. J. Kelley and C. Bradley. "The Concept of International Delegation." Law and Contemporary Problems (Winter, 2007).  [abs]
  3. J. Kelley. "Why do states keep international Commitments? The International Criminal Court and Non-surrender Agreements." American Political Science Review 101.3 (August, 2007): 573-589. [displayIssue]  [abs]
  4. J. Kelley. "New Wine in Old Wineskins: Promoting Political Reforms Through the New European Neighborhood Policy." Journal of Common Market Studies 44.1 (2006): 29-55. [online]  [abs]
  5. J. Kelley. "Strategic non-cooperation as soft balancing: Why Iraq was not just about Iraq." International Politics 42.2 (2005): 153-173. [PDF] [pdf] [abs]
  6. J. Kelley. "International Actors on the Domestic Scene: Membership Conditionality and Socialization by International Institutions." International Organization 58.3 (Summer, 2004): 425-457. (Reprinted in Martin, Lisa, Editor. Global Governance, Ashgate 2008) [displayIssue]  [abs]
  7. J. Kelley. Ethnic Politics in Europe: The Power of Norms and Incentives. Princeton University Press, 2004. [online]  [abs]
  8. J. Kelley. "Does Domestic Politics Limit the Influence of External Actors on Domestic Politics?." Human Rights Review 5.3 (April, 2004): 34-54. (April-June 2003) [available here]  [abs]

Curriculum Vitae

Highlight:
Research interests: 1)The influence of international actors on democratic and human rights reforms 2) The role of international law in government behavior 3) The evolution of international norms and laws