Daniel Arnon
Assistant Professor, School of Government and Public Policy
University of Arizona, School of Government and Public Policy
About
Daniel Arnon is an Assistant Professor in the School of Government and Public Policy at the
University of Arizona and co-Executive Director of the Political Terror Scale (PTS). His research
examines human rights, repression, and conflict: why states and non-state actors resort to
violence, how the public perceives and responds to it, and how it is measured. He works at the
intersection of conflict studies, human rights measurement, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,
drawing on experiments, observational data, geographic data, and archival research.
Education
Ph.D. Political Science
Emory University
M.A. Political Science
Emory University
M.Sc. Political Science and Political Economy (with distinction)
London School of Economics
B.A. Political Science and B.A. Economics (summa cum laude)
University of North Carolina Asheville
Research Areas
Human rights and repression
Political violence and conflict
Human rights measurement
Public perceptions of violence and atrocity
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict
Identity politics and tolerance of repression
Political Terror Scale
Daniel Arnon is co-Executive Director of the Political Terror Scale
(PTS), an annual dataset of state violations of personal integrity rights used widely across political
science, economics, and policy research.
Featured Publications
Published Papers
(2025).
Radicalizing Alone – Are Lone Wolves Political Entrepreneurs or Aggrieved Avengers?.
Conflict Management and Peace Science.
(2024).
Contentious Politics in the Borderlands: How Nonviolence and Migrant Characteristics Affect Public Attitudes.
Journal of Peace Research.
(2023).
Message or Messenger? Source and Labeling Effects in Authoritarian Response to Protest.
Comparative Political Studies, 56(12), 1891-1923.
(2023).
Social Cohesion and Community Displacement in Armed Conflict: Evidence from Palestinian Villages in the 1948 War.
International Security, 47(3), 52-94.
Best Paper Award, Conflict Processes Section
(2022).
Causes of Foreign-Imposed Regime Change: The Signal of Economic Expropriations.
Journal of Conflict Resolution, 66(4-5), 651-676.
Working Papers
- “Navigating Conflicting Information in Autocratic Protests: A Survey Experiment in China” — with Xiao Ding
- “The Politics of Punishment in Mandate Palestine: Administrative Capacity, Social Cleavages, and the Repertoires of Colonial Repression” — with Michael Rubin and Adee Weller
- “Rallying the Public for Repression? Security Entrepreneurs and Their Rhetoric”
- “From Abundance to Insight: Evaluating Long-Term Knowledge Transfer in Standards-Based Measurement of Human Rights” — with Baekkwan Park and Peter Haschke
- “Civilian Suffering, Social Media, and Foreign Policy Attitudes: Evidence from the Israel-Hamas War” — with Daniel Silverman and Caitlin A. Fealing
- “Does Backlash Stop At the Water’s Edge? Civilian Suffering, Social Media, and Responses to Palestinian and Israeli Supporters in the U.S.” — with Rongbo Jin and Daniel Silverman
- “Repression and Dissent in Mandate Palestine: A Village Level Dataset” — with Michael Rubin and Adee Weller
- “Measuring Intergroup Rivalry Across Cultural Contexts: How Cultural Norms Distort Expressed Out-Group Animosity” — with Samara Klar and Faten Ghosn
- “Information Corrections and Out-Group Perceptions: Evidence from the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict” — with Samara Klar and Faten Ghosn
- “What Makes an Atrocity a Genocide? Thresholds in Public Perception” — with Rachel Schoner and Rachel Van Nostrand
- “From Grievances to Targets: How Target Selection Tradeoffs are Resolved by Lone Actors”
Public Writing & Media
- “Palestine 1948 and Its Lessons for Displacement Today” — with Michael Rubin and Richard McAlexander. Lawfare (June 2023)
- “Grassroots Environmental Activism Is One Answer to China’s Climate Commitments” — with Pearce Edwards and Handi Li. Carnegie Mellon University Journal of Politics and Strategy (December 2021)
- “More than Reporting: Media Portrayal of Protests can Impact their Success and Failure” — with Pearce Edwards. Political Violence at a Glance (November 2019)
- “Do coups improve human rights in countries like Gabon?” — with Travis Curtice. Democracy in Africa (January 2019)
- “Measuring Violations of Human Rights Standards” — with Mark Gibney, Linda Cornett, Reed M. Wood, and Peter Haschke (2016). In Politics: Oxford Research Encyclopedias, Oxford University Press.
- “Interview with Daniel Arnon on award-winning MSc Dissertation.” London School of Economics – Government Blog (October 2014)