The Nils Petter Gleditsch JPR article of the Year Award
Prof. Hyun Jeong Ha
My co-authored paper (equal authorship with two other authors), “Regime change and religious discrimination after the Arab Uprisings” was granted the Nils Petter Gleditsch JPR article of the Year Award. I am thankful for the recognition of my collaborative research endeavors with two political scientists, where we put theories, quantitative, and qualitative analysis together. Journal of Peace Research (JPR) is one of the highest-ranking journals, with a 5-year impact factor of 4.6 (3.6 in 2022).
Article title
“Regime Change and Discrimination towards Religious Minorities after the Arab Uprisings” (Winner of The Nils Petter Gleditsch JPR Article of the Year, 2023)
Reference
Jason Klocek, Hyun Jeong Ha, and Nathanael Sumaktoyo. 2023. “Regime Change and Discrimination towards Religious Minorities after the Arab Uprisings” 60(3): 489-503. Journal of Peace Research (Equal authorship).
Abstract
This article investigates how and when regime transitions intensify minority discrimination through an analysis of two types of religious persecution following the Arab uprisings. We argue that weakened institutions and the prevalence of religious outbidding during political transitions make societal-based religious discrimination (SRD) more likely to increase than government-based religious discrimination (GRD). This is because social divisions are often exacerbated and social unrest difficult to contain, while at the same time, policy change can be difficult to enact and enforce. We test these claims through a mixed-methods research design. Employing a synthetic control method, the cross-national, quantitative analysis from 1990 to 2014 confirms that GRD has not changed since the Arab uprisings, while SRD has substantially increased in those countries (i.e. Egypt, Libya, and Tunisia) that also experienced regime change. A case study of Egypt provides more direct evidence of the institutional and outbidding mechanisms. The qualitative analysis draws on ethnographic research conducted in Cairo during 2014, which includes in-depth interviews with Coptic Orthodox Christians. Our findings underscore the twin challenge of protecting and accommodating minority religions during periods of political transition.
The Nils Petter Gleditsch JPR article of the Year Award, 2023 is given to the best article published in 2023 by a jury of the Journal of Peace Research (JPR). JPR is a top-tier and high-impact interdisciplinary and international peer-reviewed peace research journal focusing on the causes of violence and conflict resolution. Judged “based on their theoretical contribution, methodological sophistication, and substantive relevance,” the jury commented, “[t]he award-winning article combines careful theorizing on an under-researched, highly relevant topic with an impressive research design. In their article, Klocek, Ha, and Sumaktoyo develop a nuanced argument about societal versus government discrimination in political transitions, which they test using sophisticated quantitative analysis in the context of the Arab Spring and further validate with in-depth ethnography based on seven months of field research in Egypt. The article presents interesting findings on an important topic to increase the scholarly understanding of outbidding. The theory and empirics help sort out two important mechanisms, society-based and government-based discrimination. The qualitative research is on a fascinating and relatively recent case, Coptic Christians in Egypt in the aftermath of the Arab Spring. The conclusions have implications for peace and conflict studies and beyond.”
Source from: https://www.prio.org/news/3501#:~:text=Phillips%20(University%20of%20Essex)%20has,(JPR%2060%3A3).
