Wendy Wagner

Wendy Wagner is a Ph.D. candidate in political science at UC San Diego. Her dissertation explores why and how some states and armed rebel groups can coexist while others cannot. She combines quantitative analysis of a novel large-n dataset on the absence of conflict in rebel-state relations in the Middle East with archival research to show how foreign influence and rebel competition shape incentives to coexist. Her dissertation is part of a broader research agenda aimed at understanding the behavior of non-state armed actors and their host governments, particularly in the grey area between civil war and formal peace. In other work, her research focuses on rebel leaders and conflict resolution, coup risk, and foreign intervention. Wendy is also a 2024-25 Smith Richardson world politics and statecraft fellow and was a 2023-24 Hans J. Morgenthau pre-doctoral fellow at the University of Notre Dame. She also holds an M.A. in governance, diplomacy, and conflict studies from Reichman University.