Research Interests

Dr. Esser has conducted field research on urban politics, donor policies, and internal displacement in Afghanistan and Sierra Leone. He has also published on global health policies and finance, as well as on ethics in international affairs.

Selected Publications

• "From National Hub to Global Hubris: International Invasion and Institutional Change in Kabul," forthcoming in Urban Studies.
• "Do Social Media Reproduce or Challenge Global Development Rituals? A Content Analysis of Blogs and Tweets on the 2010 MDG Summit" (with T. Denskus), forthcoming in Journal of Development Studies.
• "Does Global Health Funding Respond to Recipients' Needs? Comparing Public and Private Donors' Allocations in 2005-2007" (with K. Keating Bench), World Development 39(8), pp. 1271-1280, 2011.
• "Kabul: Urban Politics from Mohammad Zaher Shah to Hamid Karzai," forthcoming in Encyclopaedia Iranica, New York, NY: Columbia University, 2009.
• "More Money, Less Cure: Why Global Health Assistance Needs Radical Restructuring," Ethics:  International Affairs 23(2), pp. 225-234, 2009.
• "Postwar Political Restructuring in Freetown and Kabul: Theoretical Limits and the Test Case for Multiscalar Governance," Critical Planning 16, pp. 80-97, 2009.
• "Who governs Kabul? Explaining Urban Politics in a Post-War Capital City," Cities and Fragile States Analytical Paper 43 (series 2), London: LSE Crisis States Research Programme, February 2009.
• "Managing for Compliance and Integrity in Practice" (with A. Rasche), in S. Carter, S. Clegg, M. Kornberger, S. Laske and M. Messner (eds.), Business Ethics As Practice: Representation, Reflexivity and Performance, Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, pp. 107-127, 2007.
• "Target Kabul: human insecurity in the Afghan capital," in humansecurity-cities.org (eds.), Human Security for an Urban Century: Local Challenges, Global Perspectives, Ottawa: Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada, pp. 14-15, 2007.
• "From Stakeholder Management to Stakeholder Accountability: Applying Habermasian Discourse Ethics to Accountability Research" (with A. Rasche), Journal of Business Ethics 65(3), pp. 251-267, 2006.
• Restructuring for Corporate Success: a Socially Sensitive Approach (with A. Broughton, T. Marpe, P. Ozoux and N. Rogovsky; eds.), Geneva: International Labour Office, 142 pages, 2006.
• "Determinants of IDP Voice: Four Cases from Sierra Leone and Afghanistan," Rosemarie Rogers Working Paper 31, Cambridge, MA: Center for International Studies August 2005.
• "The City as Arena, Hub and Prey: Patterns of Violence in Kabul and Karachi," Environment & Urbanization 16(2), pp. 31-38, 2004.

Professional Presentations

• "Chinese Capital in African Cities: Underground, Overground?," paper presented at "The Ground Beneath Our Feet: Building, Living, and Thinking Underground," American University, Washington, DC, 11 November 2011.
• "Security Scales: Situating Endemic Violence in Kabul, Afghanistan," paper presented at Violent Cities: Challenges of Democracy, Development and Governance in the Urban Global South, Watson Institute, Brown University, Providence, RI, 28–29 April 2011.
• "From National Hub to International Hubris: The Overdetermination of Kabul and the New Politics of Scale in Afghanistan," paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers, Seattle, WA, 12–16 April 2011.
•  "Aid Effectiveness," occasional lecture to newly recruited field staff of USAID’s Office of Democracy and Governance, Washington, DC, November 2010-current.
• "Why Work in International Development Despite the Industry’s Abysmal Track Record?," talk given (in German) as part of a panel on “Taking Initiative for a Better World,” Carlo Schmid Network Annual Meeting, Berlin, 5 November 2010.
• "The Transformative Power of Chinese Investment in Urban Africa: Toward Case Selection" (with Du Liang and Leslie Roe), paper presented at the 106th Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, Washington, DC, 2–5 September 2010.
• "How Poverty Trumps Inequality: A Tracer Study of Development Discourse" (with Ben Williams), paper presented at the 106th Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, Washington, DC, 2–5 September 2010.
• "Afghanistan: International Failure Is Local," talk given as part of a panel on Critical Geographies of the Afghanistan Occupation, Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers, Washington, DC, 14–18 April 2010.
• "Teaching Interdisciplinarity to Multidisciplinary Student Cohorts: From Disarmament to Empowerment," paper presented as part of the ‘Teaching Research Methods’ track, 2010 APSA Teaching and Learning Conference, Philadelphia, PA, 5–7 February 2010.
• "Funding Foci, Cost Effectiveness, and Recipients’ Priorities for Global Health," paper presented at the 105th Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, Toronto, ON, 3–6 September 2009.
• "Metropolitan Growth and Security in Asia-Pacific: Correcting the Dislocation of Public Policy," paper presented at the 105th Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, Toronto, ON, 3–6 September 2009.
• "Financing International Health and Development," invited lecture at Columbia University’s School of Social Work, New York City, NY, 24 March 2009.
• "Black Box and White Noise: Teaching Methods for Research on International Conflict," paper presented as part of the ‘Teaching Research Methods’ track, 2009 APSA Teaching and Learning Conference, Baltimore, MD, 6–8 February 2009.
• "Inter-Organizational Cooperation and Global Health," invited lecture at New York University, Executive Master’s Program in Global Public Health, New York City, 15 September 2008.
• "Urbanization in the Dock: Poverty, Conflict, and Urban Governance in Asia-Pacific," paper presented at the UNU-WIDER Project Workshop “Beyond the Tipping Point: Development in an Urban World,” London, 20 October 2007.
• "Letting Kabul Be? Overdetermination and the Challenge of Governance," paper presented at the Crisis States Research Programme Annual Workshop, Cape Town, 21 August 2007.
• "Inclusive Governance in Conflict Cities: Achieving Safety and Security through Local Cooperation" (with J. Beall and J. Sumich), panel discussion on the occasion of the World Urban Forum III, Vancouver, 22 June 2006.
• "Analysing Politics of Public Policies for Freetown: Does the Case of an African Post-War City Warrant Conceptual Revision?" paper presented at the Centre d’étude d’Afrique noire, Bordeaux, 3 March 2006.
• "How can a Governance Lens Inform Strategies and Projects for Local Economic Development and Disaster Relief?," presentation at the International Labour Office, Geneva, 13 January 2005.
• "Urban Politics in Three Afghan Cities: Countering or Exacerbating Local Inequality?," Paper presented at the 100th Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, Chicago, IL, 2–5 September 2004.
• "Towards Second Generation Organizational Accountability: The Need for a Discursive Approach in a World of Diversity," (with A. Rasche) paper presented at the British Academy of Management’s Annual Conference, St. Andrews, 30 August 2004.

Congressional Testimony

• "Governance in Sierra Leone," (with D. Keen) pre-visit briefing of the UK House of Commons’ International Development Committee, London, 2 February 2006.

Honors, Awards, and Fellowships

• German National Academic Foundation, MIT SPURS Research Fellowship
• Economic and Social Research Council, +3 award for doctoral studies
• German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), doctoral stipend for the UK
• LSE Development Studies Institute, Best Performance Prize (top student out of 72)
• German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), grant for UK graduate school fees
• Carlo Schmid Fellow (Robert Bosch Foundation, DAAD, German National Academic Foundation), research at the International Labour Office, Job Creation and Enterprise Development Department
• LSE Graduate School, Graduate Merit Award  

Grants and Sponsored Research

• AU School of International Service, Summer Research Grant (2011)
• AU School of International Service, Summer Research Grant (2010)
• German National Academic Foundation, grant for top 1% of German doctoral students
• Mellon-MIT Program on NGOs and Forced Migration, research grant to study in Sierra Leone
• Sir Richard Stapley Educational Trust, grant for research students (declined)  

Professional Certifications

• Certificate: Mediation and Participatory Processes (Program on Negotiation), Harvard Law School, Cambridge, MA (May 2004)
• Certificate: Aspects of Public International Law (Euromediterranean Courses of International Law), Bancaja International Centre for Peace and Development, Castellón de la Plana, Spain (September 2002)
• Certificate: External Relations of the European Union (EU International Summer School), Université Libre de Bruxelles with Michigan State University, Brussels, Belgium (July 2001)