Erin A. Snider
erinsnider [at] cantab.net
BlueSky: @erinsnider.bsky.social

Welcome!  I currently serve as a senior advisor and researcher for USG projects on democratic erosion and openings. I was recently a professor at Texas A&M University's Bush School of Government and Public Service and a Carnegie Fellow with New America in Washington, D.C. 

My research focuses on the politics of democracy assistance, foreign aid, and U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East and the political economy of development in the Middle East more broadly.  I'm particularly interested in questions of power in the provision of aid and understanding the role of international actors in promoting reform in authoritarian states.  My first book, Marketing Democracy: The Political Economy of Democracy Assistance in the Middle East (Cambridge University Press 2022) asks why democracy aid efforts have failed in the Middle East despite billions allocated for its promotion and explains how democracy aid may work to reinforce, rather than challenge authoritarian regimes. It also explains why particular ideas about democracy prevail over others in democracy aid programs, to the detriment of civil society in recipient countries.

I also have an interest in the role of ideas in political economy.  My new projects examine the politics of transitional aid and democratization as well as the political economy of climate change and renewable energy in the Middle East.

I've conducted field research in Afghanistan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Djibouti, Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco, and Pakistan.

I was a Fulbright Fellow in Egypt and a Gates Scholar at the University of Cambridge, where I earned my PhD in Politics and International Studies.  I earned my MSc in Middle East Politics at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) at the University of London.  Before arriving at the Bush School, I was a Postdoctoral Fellow in Regional Political Economy at the Niehaus Center for Globalization and Governance at Princeton University's School of Public and International Affairs. 

Before returning to academia, I worked for several years on development and humanitarian demining with the U.S. Department of State and the UN Association of the USA (UN-USA).

My research has been supported by the Gates Trust, the New America Foundation, the Scowcroft Institute at Texas A&M, and American University's Bridging the Gap Initiative and my work has appeared in International Studies Quarterly, PS: Political Science and Politics, Globalizations, Middle East Journal, and Middle East Policy among other outlets.