Bio
Eugene Finkel is Kenneth H. Keller Associate Professor of International Affairs
Academic and Faculty Liaison at SAIS Europe
Eugene (Evgeny) Finkel works at the intersection of political science and history. He was born in Ukraine and grew up in Israel. Finkel received a BA in Political Science and International Relations at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a PhD in Political Science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His research focuses on how institutions and individuals respond to extreme situations: mass violence, state collapse, and rapid change.
Finkel is the author of
Ordinary Jews: Choice and Survival during the Holocaust (Princeton University Press, 2017) and, together with Scott Gehlbach, of
Reform and Rebellion in Weak States (Cambridge University Press, 2020). His next book,
Bread and Autocracy: Food, Politics and Security in Putin’s Russia is forthcoming with Oxford University Press. His articles have appeared in the
American Political Science Review, Journal of Politics, Comparative Political Studies, Comparative Politics, East European Politics and Societies, Slavic Review, and several other journals and edited volumes. Finkel also published articles and op-eds in
The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Foreign Affairs and other outlets.
Courses
- Genocide and Mass Violence
Genocide is often described as the worst of crimes, the nadir of human behavior, and the world’s most "odious scourge." The goal of this course is to examine the origins and causes of genocide and to introduce students to the key works and major debates in the growing field of genocide and mass violence research. This course is divided into three parts. First, we will discuss how genocide is conceptualized and defined, explore the theories that try to explain why genocides occur, and discuss why people may participate in genocidal killing. In the second part we will examine several key case studies of genocide and mass violence. Third, we will complete the course by debating policy approaches to genocide and mass violence including prevention, intervention, post-genocide justice, reconciliation and memory.
- Autocracy from Early States to the 21st Century
Autocracy is the most prevalent regime type throughout human history and more than a half of world's population currently live in authoritarian states. This class focuses on the development of autocracy as a global phenomenon from the early states to the 21st century. We will discuss the historical evolution of this regime type, how and why autocracies are born and die, varieties of autocracy, the sources of autocratic stability and collapse, autocratic governance, how autocracies respond to crises and the external and domestic challenges authoritarian rulers and societies face in contemporary world.
- Russia and Ukraine in Peace and War
forthcoming