Deki Peldon

Deki Peldon is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Political Science at the University of South Carolina. Her research sits at the intersection of international relations and comparative politics, with a focus on political violence, conflict processes, state repression, and human rights.

Her dissertation, Assassination as Strategic Choice: Consequences, Risks, and Triggers, examines political assassination as a strategic instrument of statecraft. Through three connected papers, it traces the full arc of the assassination decision — from the societal consequences of successful killings, to the political fallout of failed attempts, to the conditions that lead states to escalate from non-lethal repression to targeted killing. She brings quantitative methods to bear on each of these questions, drawing on original data to study how and why states choose political violence as a tool of control.

She is also engaged in research on transnational repression — how states collaborate across borders to surveil and suppress diaspora communities — and on how interstate rivalries are managed during periods of domestic instability.

Prior to her doctoral studies, Deki served as an Associate and Assistant Lecturer at the College of Language and Culture Studies, Royal University of Bhutan, where she taught courses on Bhutan’s international relations and Gross National Happiness.

Research Interests

International Relations Political Violence Conflict Processes Repression & Human Rights Quantitative Methods