Salah Ben Hammou

Salah Ben Hammou, Ph.D., is a Nonresident Research Fellow at the Edward P. Djerejian Center for the Middle East at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy. His research examines political instability, military coups, civil-military relations, authoritarian politics, and democratization, with a regional focus on the Middle East and Africa. His current work examines how military officers and civilians shape the emergence and consolidation of post-coup political orders, as well as the dynamics of coup contagion and political transitions.

Ben Hammou’s research has appeared in peer-reviewed journals including Armed Forces & Society, Africa Spectrum, International Studies Review, and the Journal of Global Security Studies. His public scholarship and policy analysis have appeared in Foreign Policy, The Washington Post, The Conversation, Just Security, Modern War Institute, Political Violence at a Glance, The Loop, and The Cairo Review of Global Affairs, among other outlets.

Prior to becoming a Nonresident Research Fellow, Ben Hammou was a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Baker Institute (2024–2026) and served as a 2023–24 USIP–Minerva Peace and Security Scholar at the United States Institute of Peace. He has also held a Diversity Fellowship with the American Political Science Association and is a Nonresident Fellow with the Centre for African Conflict and Development.

Ben Hammou received his Ph.D. in Security Studies from the University of Central Florida in 2024. From 2022 to 2024, he served as co-chair of the Status Committee on Graduate Students of the American Political Science Association.