Professor Marijke Breuning Career Highlights and Research

Regents Professor and President Elect of the International Studies Association

Breuning, Marijke, and Gabriela Okundaye. 2021. "Half of the Cabinet: Explaining Ethiopia's Move to Gender Parity in the Government." Special issue "Ethiopia in Transition," Journal of Asian and African Studies. 56(5):1064-1078.

Okundaye, Gabriela, and Marijke Breuning. 2021. "Is the Expansion of Women's Access to Political Leadership Rewarded? Evidence from the Allocation of US Foreign Aid" Journal of Women, Politics & Policy. 42(3): 225-242.

Breuning, Marijke, and Jinrui Xi. 2021. "The Consequences of Accession: The Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption's Impact on Children's Rights." Journal of International Relations and Development. 24(1): 77-100.

Breuning, Marijke, and Anna Pechenina. 2020. "Role Dissonance in Foreign Policy: Russia, Power, and Intercountry Adoption." Foreign Policy Analysis. 16(1): 21-40.

Breuning, Marijke, and Melissa Martinez. 2018. "Difficult Commitments: Intercountry Adoption to the US and Accession to the Hague Convention." Adoption Quarterly. 21(4): 247-269.

Current research (each co-authored with current and former UNT graduate students)

One study examines the relationship between foreign aid, debt, and the inclusion of women in African cabinets. This study evaluates whether the governments of states that are more aid-dependent and indebted yield to international pressure to move toward gender parity in political life or, alternatively, respond primarily to domestic interests.

Another study investigates the reasons why states limit their commitments to international human rights treaties by registering reservations against elements of the treaties they ratify and asks when and why other states object to such limitations. The focus of this study is on the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), which has a particularly high number of reservations, potentially limiting global progress on gender equality.

Data collection for a study focusing on similar dynamics regarding the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) is currently in progress. This study will, in part, examine the intersection between reservations against the CRC and the state's commitment (or absence thereof) to treaties that elaborate on aspects of the CRC, such as the Hague Convention focused on intercountry adoption.