Dr. Kaleb Demerew is an assistant professor of political science at West Texas A&M University and a non-resident scholar at the University of Pittsburgh's Center for Governance and Markets. His research examines the institutional foundations of state-building and the comparative political economy of development and conflict, with a regional emphasis on Northeast Africa and the Red Sea. Dr. Demerew is co-editor of Nile Basin Politics (Edward Elgar), and his work has appeared in The Journal of Institutional Economics, Nations and Nationalism, and Third World Quarterly. He is currently working on two sole-authored books under contract, "Violence, Elites, and Institutions" (SUNY Press) and "Economic Freedom and Self-Governance in Africa" (Routledge).