Marten Brienen

Marten Brienen is a historian of twentieth century Latin America by training and has been faculty in Africana Studies, Latin American Studies, Anthropology, Political Science, Global Studies, and Fire and Emergency Management Administration at two separate R1 institutions. This has presented both obstacles to and opportunities for my research; it has with some frequency required adaptation to entirely new methods and subject matters—especially in teaching—but it has also exposed me to ideas and approaches that I would otherwise never have encountered, leaving me in many ways a truly interdisciplinary scholar. The time I spent in Fire and Emergency Management Administration, for example, has left me with an enduring interest in how the international disaster management system works—or rather, fails. Similarly, the many courses I have taught on civil war and famine and the international humanitarian responses to them have also influenced my work.

Research Interests:

My research interest ultimately revolve around the consequences of having weak institutions. In this context, I have written on the drug trade in Bolivia under Morales, who is famously a cocalero ("Drug Trafficking Policy in Bolivia under the Morales Administration," 2015). I collaborated with my colleague Dr. Jonathan Rosen in editing a volume on the war on drugs and associated criminality (New Approaches to Drug Policies: Organized Crime and the War on Drugs, 2015). Likewise, looking at the reverse side of the war on drugs, we edited a volume on penal systems in the Americas (Prisons in the Americas: A Human Dumping Ground, 2015) to which I contributed a chapter on the Bolivian penal system ("A Special Kind of Hell: The Bolivian Penal System," 2015). Continuing on the realities of the war on drugs, I wrote on the lack of incentives for cooperation between countries affected by the manufacture of drugs, arguing that the 'balloon effect' precludes these countries from cooperating on this matter ("Security Cooperation in Bolivia and Colombia in the Twenty-First Century," 2015). Dr. Rosen and I also authored a chapter on the drug trade in neighboring Peru ("The Vicious Cycle: The Resurgence of Drug Production and Drug Trafficking in Peru," 2015).

Besides looking at the importance of the drug trade, I have also examined Bolivian reliance on its extractive industries as a key cause of ongoing economic instability. In this context, I have written on the importance of the so-called 'Gas Wars' of 2003-2005 in toppling two presidents and propelling Evo Morales into the presidency ("Our Gas Is Not for Sale: Energy Security in Bolivia," 2016). Likewise, I have examined the Morales regime in the broader context of Bolivia's very long history of political instability ("The Ungovernable State: Bolivia in the Age of Morales," 2017). I have contextualized this by looking at the history of Bolivian popular revolution ("A Populism of Indignities: Bolivian Populism under Evo Morales," 2017). Indeed, from the Bolivian example, I have written more broadly on the destructive role of resource populism as a major source of political and economic instability across Latin America ("Latin American Resource Populism in the Early 21st Century," 2017).

Another avenue for me to explore the complex interplay of weak institutions and strong communities is the role of violence. I have done this by looking at the practice of ajusticiamiento (lynching) in Bolivian society—the argument has frequently been made that this is a new practice (it is not) and that it is an example of communities dispensing their own justice in the absence of reliable policing, which I also argue it is not. The violence employed is not only extreme in its cruelty, exceedingly public, and wholly ritualized, but it is also frequently practiced against the most vulnerable ("Spectacular (In)Justice: Communal Violence and Impunity in Bolivia," 2018). Continuing on the theme of violence, I have also examined the relative lack of criminal violence relating to the drug trade, especially compared to other countries in the region, and have argued that this, too, is a consequence of high degrees of social cohesion in Bolivian communities that are frequently described as 'marginal' ("Coca, Organized Crime, and (Non-)Violence in Bolivia," 2019). In a work published this summer, I continue to explore this theme of violence as a consequence of weak state institutions by looking at populist arguments for 'tough-on-crime' policies in Bolivia ("Clamoring for Violence: Mano Dura in Bolivia," 2023).

I have further explored issues undermining the stability of the state by looking at the problem of corruption ("The Police Are Involved in Everything: Corruption in Bolivia," 2020), effectively combining the themes of violence, drug trafficking, and weak institutions. I have been able to share much of my research with a broader audience as well. For example, in The Conversation I explained the circumstances of Evo Morales's 2019 ouster to a popular audience ("Bolivia after Morales: An Ungovernable Country with a Power Vacuum," 2019).