Kylie N. Smith

Welcome! My name is Kylie Smith (she/her/hers), and I am a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Government at the University of Texas at Austin. I specialize in International Relations and Political Methodology. My research examines how armed groups evolve after war and how their post-conflict trajectories shape governance, security, and political order.

My primary research focuses on violent non-state actors (VNSOs), including rebel groups, pro-government militias, and community defense forces. I am particularly interested in how these organizations adapt following conflict termination--whether they dissolve, persist peacefully, or remobilize--and the institutional legacies they leave behind. Across projects, I study how organizational structure, wartime ties to the state, and post-conflict political opportunities influence patterns of violence, restraint, and reintegration.

Prior to joining UT Austin, I received my B.A. from the Honors College at Baylor University and my M.A. in Violence, Terrorism, and Security from Queen’s University Belfast. I am also a Graduate Fellow at the Clements Center for National Security at the University of Texas.

My dissertation, Now What? Patterns of Violence and Organizational Change in Post-Conflict Armed Groups, consists of three linked projects that examine distinct post-war pathways: organizational termination, peaceful persistence through community brokerage, and remobilization following political shocks. Methodologically, I combine survival analysis, Bayesian hierarchical models, difference-in-differences designs, and qualitative evidence from historical and fieldwork-based case studies.