Lawrence Markowitz

Focus areas: comparative politics, authoritarianism, state building; political violence, post-Soviet Eurasia

Lawrence P. Markowitz is Professor of Political Science at Rowan University and Visiting Associate Professor of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University. He specializes in comparative politics with research and teaching interests in state building, authoritarianism, and political violence in post-Soviet Eurasia. Having conducted research in Central Asia for over 20 years, Markowitz is the author of two books and a number of chapters in edited volumes. His first book, State Erosion: Unlootable Resources and Unruly Elites in Central Asia (Cornell University Press, 2013), was awarded Honorable Mention for the 2014 Ed A Hewitt Book Prize given by the Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies, for “an outstanding monograph on the political economy of Russia, Eurasia and/or Eastern Europe, published in the previous year.” His second book (with Mariya Y. Omelicheva), entitled Webs of Corruption: Trafficking and Terrorism in Central Asia (Columbia University Press, 2019), argues that state involvement in drug trafficking accounts for low levels of terrorist violence in Central Asia. His work has also appeared in a variety of academic journals, including Comparative Political Studies, Comparative Politics, Democratization, Ethnic and Racial Studies, Post-Soviet Affairs, Social Science Quarterly, and Terrorism and Political Violence. His research has been supported by the Minerva Research Initiative, Fulbright Commission, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Social Science Research Council, International Research and Exchanges Board, and National Council for Eurasian and East European Research. Markowitz received his Ph.D. in Political Science from University of Wisconsin-Madison.