Eelco van der Maat is a University Lecturer at the institute for History.

More information about Eelco van der Maat

My research examines how authoritarian leaders use political violence to win power struggles at the top of their regimes. Wars, mass repression, and even genocide are usually explained by ideology, security threats, or miscalculation. I argue that they also serve a different purpose: they are a means through which leaders capture the state's security forces — army, police, and intelligence services that decide who survives a power struggle. Campaigns of mass violence allow leaders to build new armed coalitions, tie down rival commanders, force officers and officials to demonstrate loyalty, and purge challengers. This helps explain why authoritarian elites embark on violence that seems to harm their own interests — from Mao's campaigns to the Rwandan genocide, or Xi's repression of Uyghurs or Putin's invasion of Ukraine — and when such violence ends.

I am the author of Why Autocrats Kill (Routledge, 2024). My research has appeared in International Organization, the Journal of Peace Research, and the Journal of Genocide Research, among other outlets.

My broader interests include the internal politics of authoritarian regimes (coups, purges, succession struggles); civil-military relations; genocide, mass atrocities; and democratic backsliding. Methodologically, I work on causal inference for rare events and on theory-driven research under the data-scarce conditions typical of authoritarian settings, and combining qualitative and quantitative approaches.

In the media

My work on authoritarianism and violence has been covered in national and international media. I have been interviewed by The New York Times and De Telegraaf, consulted as a background expert by NRC, and have appeared on Dutch and international broadcasters and podcasts.

Activities