I am a professor of Political Science and Public Policy at Duke University.
I am also co-director of the ICB data project and Director of the Triangle Institute of Security Studies (TISS).
My research interests focus on the quantitative study of international conflict and peace processes. I am particularly interested in questions related to the role of third parties in shaping conflict dynamics, the interdependence of networks of conflict and cooperation, the links between armed conflict and gender power imbalances, and the impact of nuclear weapons on international crisis behavior.
You can find my ORCID profile here, and my Scholars@Duke profile here.
And check out these new books that I’m proud to release!
 Mixed Blessings: International Relationships of Assistance and Conflict (2026) | Who your friends are shapes who your enemies are and vice versa. Starting with this premise, Mixed Blessings takes up two related research questions: how does a state's relational web of security assistance (amity) influence its relationships of threat (enmity), and how does a state's relational web of enmity influence its relationships of amity? Drawing on theories of alliance politics and deterrence theory, Kyle Beardsley uncovers the causes and consequences of security assistance through quantitative examination of the networked and relational nature of international politics. Qualitative assessments of the end of the Cold War-with particular attention to the proxy wars in Central America and Southern Africa-and recent developments in the Indo-Pacific further illustrate the mechanisms in play while also seeding the ground for ongoing inquiry. The lessons learned from the analyses directly bear on questions of American statecraft and the collapsing liberal international order. Check out this fun blog post. Here is a 4-part AI-generated podcast series: Mixed Blessings Podcast And enjoy this playlist to accompany your reading: Mixed Blessings Spotify Playlist |
 A Century of International Crisis Behavior (2026) | Perhaps more than ever, we need to invest in the study of the causes and consequences of crises. Since its founding in 1975, the International Crisis Behavior (ICB) Project has aimed to better equip academics, policymakers, and the next generation of engaged citizens to make sense of why crises arise and how they can be more effectively managed and prevented. The ICB Project’s data holdings consist of full-length qualitative case studies, along with an expanding range of quantitative datasets that include information regarding the characteristics of the states in crisis, crisis behavior, attempts at third-party crisis management, the role of nonstate actors, and the system-level context. A Century of International Crisis Behavior summarizes the evolving patterns of international crisis behavior in the more than 500 cases cataloged since 1918, provides an accounting of the state of the scholarship to make sense of the patterns, and presents new findings that advance our understanding. Chapters are grouped according to their level of analysis: studies of systems, dyads, and states. The authors highlight what we have learned and what we have yet to learn regarding the prevention, escalation, and de-escalation of international crises. |
