David Waldner (Ph.D. Berkeley) is interested in the formation of the modern state, the political economy of economic development, and the origins of democracy and dictatorship. He also writes on qualitative methods of causal inference. His most recent book is Rethinking the Resource Curse. His current book projects include Qualitative Causal Inferences & Explanations, American Nation-Building from the American South to Afghanistan: Militarized Democracy Promotion by an Imperfect Democracy, and a study of the origins and long-term consequences of labor-repressive agriculture in Iraq and the American South.