Dr. Kaleb Demerew

Political Scientist | State-building, Conflict, Development

Specializing in the political economy of Northeast Africa, the Red Sea, and the Nile Basin

Dr. Kaleb Demerew is a Non-Resident Scholar at the Center for Governance and Markets (University of Pittsburgh) and an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Hope College. He has published three books (including an edited volume) and several academic journal articles on development, conflict, and security in Northeast Africa, the Red Sea, and the Nile Basin. His research has received competitive grants and fellowships from the Institute for Humane Studies, the Mercatus Center, the Israel Institute, and the Association for the Study of the Middle East and Africa. He holds a PhD in Politics and International Affairs from the University of South Florida.

Full CV available here.

books

Violence and State-Building (forthcoming, SUNY Press) examines how political order emerges through the strategic use of rents (privileged access to political and economic resources) and violence by ruling and contending elites. It explores how the resulting bargains shape state fragility or political development, drawing on cases from Ethiopia, Rwanda, and South Sudan.

Book page

Contractualist State-building and Economic Freedom in Africa (Routledge, 2026) argues that stable, organic states in Africa can only emerge through a “facilitator state” whose institutions facilitate and codify free, voluntary transactions among autonomous individuals. The book examines Rwanda, Ethiopia, and Somaliland.

Book page
Free open access chapter

Nile Basin Politics (Edward Elgar, 2025) is an edited volume examining how political elites in the eleven Nile riparian states instrumentalize basin rivalries to advance state-building and nationalist aspirations. It also explores how policy coordination and joint management may offer pragmatic alternatives to broader cooperative frameworks in water diplomacy.

Book page