Workshop Chair: Ranan Kuperman, University of Haifa
Location: Magnolia Room, Hilton New Orleans Riverside
Time: Tuesday, February 16, 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM
Workshop Summary:
The product of this workshop is more than just a research publication, but rather a research tool that will be located on the internet. We are anticipating that with the aid of this tool we will succeed in accomplishing two things. First, we will promote experimental research in the field of International Relations. In our view, in comparison to other fields in the social sciences, experimental research is not receiving sufficient attention. The second objective of this workshop is our attempt to promote research of dynamic processes. This type of research is essential because international environments are highly unstable and undergo a continual flux of events. Studying dynamic processes of international interactions on the basis of historical data is extremely difficult and is riddled by missing data. Experiments with simulators of dynamic environments offers an opportunity to explore many aspects of foreign policy decision making that cannot be studied in any other research approach. Therefore, by creating a simulator module we are encouraging a new research agenda by providing researchers with an alternative venue for studying dynamic international interactions.
We have already started the first phase of this project. A prototype of the module is being created right now. Thus the next stage is to evaluate the prototype. During the workshop we will discuss the necessary requirements in order to maintain the simulator module. This means techniques for creating simulations, running dynamic experiments, accessing and analyzing data that is produced, and teaching other researchers how to use the simulator and conduct their own experiments. In addition to the module we intend to produce a manual with examples. We will therefore develop simulators and run a number of experiments that can illustrate the capabilities of the module and type of questions that can be studied.
We are expecting that following this workshop and after further modifications of the module, a number of us, as well as other researchers, will use the module in order to create their own simulators and run their own experiments. Therefore we are anticipating next year a panel devoted to “Dynamic Processes in International Relations.” Such a panel would include descriptions of the simulator s that were developed and experiments demonstrating preliminary results. This would be the first panel ever dedicated to the study of dynamic decision making in the field of foreign policy, While the this type of research has been established during the past two decades in the fields of management, psychology and organizational science, it has been neglected in the field of foreign policy analysis, even though this type of research is highly relevant.
Workshop Participants:
- Ric Stoll, Rice University, USA
- Nehemia Geva, Texas A&M University, USA
- Andrew Enterline, University of North Texas, USA
- Ranan Kuperman, University of Haifa, Israel
- Steve Redd, University of Minnesota, USA
- Lesley Terris, IDC, Herlziya, Israel
- Nadav Kedem, University of Haifa, Israel
- Victor Asal, SUNY, Albany, USA
