Sidita Kushi is an international relations scholar who researchers, writes, and teaches at the intersection of international security, US foreign policy, and political economy.
Using both quantitative and qualitative approaches, Sidita investigates the drivers and outcomes of international military interventions for interventors and target states, focusing on US interventions as well multi-actor interventions triggered by violent humanitarian crises. She also studies the impact of economic crises across states, welfare systems, and demographics, using an explicit gendered lens. Her regional interests relate to the Western Balkans and the transatlantic sphere.
As the former Research Director of the Military Intervention Project (MIP) at the Fletcher School, Tufts University, Sidita spearheaded the creation of a comprehensive database of all US military interventions since 1776 and their associated characteristics and consequences. Sidita remains engaged with MIP and the Fletcher School as a Non-Residential Fellow.
Her first book based on the MIP project, (2023), empirically traces the US鈥檚 militaristic footprint abroad and its consequences across defining historical eras of foreign policymaking, deploying both aggregated data and pivotal case narratives. It finds an alarming escalation in the US usage of force abroad in recent eras.
Her second book, (2025) offers a regionally sensitive, mixed-methods analysis of the humanitarian military intervention 鈥渟electivity gap鈥 since the end of the Cold War, asking: why do humanitarian interventions occur in response to some humanitarian crises, but not others? Sidita traces the interactive influence of conflict perceptions and regional institutional mandates across three core cases, Kosovo, Libya, and Darfur, to reveal distinct pathways of intervention and the regionally-bounded interests and norms that define the landscape of humanitarian militarism.
Alongside her two books, Sidita has authored numerous academic articles on military interventions, intrastate conflict perceptions, and the gendered dynamics of economic crises, published in The Journal of Conflict Resolution, International Affairs, International Relations, Comparative European Politics, European Security, World Affairs, International Labour Review, amongst others. Sidita also contributes to public scholarship on the Western Balkans, US foreign policy, and transatlantic security within outlets such as Foreign Affairs, The Washington Post, Newsweek, and Al Jazeera.
At Mount Holyoke, Sidita regularly teaches World Politics, American Foreign Policy, Debates in International Politics (First Year Seminar), and more.
Areas of Expertise
International Relations, International Security, US Foreign Policy, International Political Economy, Quantitative Methods, Military Interventions, Humanitarian Military Interventions, Civil Wars, Western Balkans, Gender and Labor Markets, Economic Crises
Education
- Ph.D. in Political Science from Northeastern University
- M.A. in Political Science from Northeastern University
- B.A. in Economics and International Studies from St. John Fisher University
