Gallery

Snapshots from three decades of research and teaching

Publications and Papers

A selection of key research and writings

Revolution Stalled: The Political Limits of the Internet in the Post-Soviet Sphere

Can the internet fundamentally challenge non-free regimes? The role that social networking has played in promoting political change in the Middle East and beyond raises important questions about the ability of authoritarian leaders to control the information sphere and their subjects. Revolution Stalled goes beyond the idea of "virtual" politics to study five key components in the relationship between the online sphere and society: content, community, catalysts, control, and co-optation.

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Terrorism, Elections, and Democracy: Political Campaigns in the United States, Great Britain, and Russia

This book written with Lynda Lee Kaid and Mike Berry examines the influence of terrorist threat in the recent elections in the US, Great Britain, and Russia to analyze the influence of post-9/11 fears on voting behaviour in comparative perspective. It is in these different countries that warnings about terrorism find the most resonance with candidates, journalists and voters alike.

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Free downloads!

You can find a full list of my publications on my CV. Many of these are behind paywalls, but my conference papers are available for free as our some article that I will list below (with links). The chart above is from the Kennan Cable (listed below).

Smyth, Regina and Sarah Oates. November 10, 2020. Russia’s rigged elections look nothing like the US election – they have immediate, unquestioned results there. The Conversation,

Steiner, Sean P. and Sarah Oates. August 2019. Reading the RT Leaves: Foreign Policy Lessons from Russian International Media Coverage of Venezuela. Kennan Cable 43. Washington, D.C.: The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

Oates, Sarah and Sean P. Steiner. 2018. Projecting Power: Understanding Russian Strategic Narrative. Russian Analytical Digest 229 (December 17).

Oates, Sarah. January 13, 2017. How Russian ‘kompromat’ destroys political opponents, no facts required. Alleged sex, Kremlin lies and secretly obtained videotapes. Invited Washington Post opinion article (online and in print edition).

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Sarah’s insights on Russian media transformed my understanding of political communication.

J. Lee

★★★★★