Publications

Books

1. Elder, Claire. 2027. Diaspora Inc.: The Political Economy and Perils of Diaspora Statecraft and Nativist Conflict in Global Somalia and Beyond (Published online open access by OUP in March 2027, in print April 2027).

Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles 

2. Elder, Claire. 'Tools of survival? The political economy of diaspora rentierism and social crisis in Somalia and Lebanon', Review of International Political Economy (Accepted, December 2026).

3. Elder, Claire, John Heathershaw and Tena Prelic. 2027. 'The hidden assault on academics: Explaining how defamation lawfare corrodes the Liberal International Order', International Organisations (Under review, October 2026).

4. Elder, Claire and Cameron deHart. 2025. 'US territorial statecraft: The new political economy of recognition in contested land (1973-2023)', International Studies Quarterly (Submitted for review, January 2024).

5. Elder, Claire. 2022. ‘Logistics Contracts: The Making of Intra-Elite Conflict and State Failure in Somalia’. African Affairs 121, 484 (July): 395–417.

6. Elder, Claire. 2021. ‘Somaliland’s Authoritarian Turn: New Perspectives on Oligarchic-Corporate Power and the Political Economy of De Facto States’. International Affairs 97, no. 6 (November): 1749–1765.

• Winner, International Affairs Early Career Prize 2022.

• Winner, SSPS Early Career Prize, 2023.

Article-Length Works-in-Progress

7. Elder, Claire and Melle Scholten. 2026. "The New Global Talent Order: Explaining Competition for Highly-Skilled Labour in the AI Era", accepted by First Dutch-German Workshop on Political Economy, January 2027.

8. Elder, Claire. 2026. "A new dataset on diaspora economic statecraft: the India case study", accepted and presented at the 2026 American Political Science Association and 2027 ISA.

9. Elder, Claire. 2026. "New frontiers of diaspora financialization and neomercantilism in Africa", (under review by African Affairs). 

10. Elder,Claire, Jon Schubert and Fabio Mattioli. ‘Brutal Economies: Applying African Insights to the Political Economy of Neo-Authoritarianism’ (in progress).

Working Papers

11. Kaldor, Mary, Radice, Henry, De Waal, Alex, Benson, Matthew, Detzner, Sarah, Elder, Claire, Hoffmann, Kasper, Ibreck, Rachel, Majid, Nisar, Morgan, Azaria, Mehchy, Zaki, Rangelov, Iavor, Sarkar, Aditya, Spatz, Benjamin J., Theros, Marika, Turkmani, Rim, Vlassenroot, Koen and Watkins, Jessica. 2020. Evidence from the Conflict Research Programme: submission to the Integrated Review of Security, Defence, Development and Foreign Policy. Conflict Research Programme, London School of Economics and Political Science, London, UK.

12. Majid, Nisar, Aditya Sarkar, Claire Elder, Khalif Abdirahman, Sarah Detzner, Jared Miller and Alex De Waal. 2021. 'Somalia’s Politics: The Usual Business? A Synthesis Paper of the Conflict Research Programme'. Conflict Research Programme, London School of Economics and Political Science, London, UK.

13. Elder, Claire, J Meester and A Uzelac. 2019. ‘Transnational Capital in Somalia: Blue Desert Strategy’. Conflict Research Unit: Working Paper Series on Fragile States, Netherlands Institute of International Relations Clingendael.

14. Elder, Claire, and A Hoffman. 2017. ‘Somalia’s Business Elites and Regional Political Settlements’. Conflict Research Unit: Working Paper Series on Fragile States, Netherlands Institute of International Relations Clingendael and the World Bank.