Welcome to The Quantitative Peace, a blog dedicated to empirical international relations and comparative politics with a specific focus on quantitative and formal studies. The goal is to discuss, elaborate, critique, and announce current and emerging research in the subfields that is relevant to the study of international relations and comparative politics. Additionally, upcoming events and announcements are posted while popular press articles and news stories are highlighted as they relate to our field. The blog was started April 23, 2008.
Why?
We at the Quantitative Peace believe that social scientists in international relations and comparative politics make an important contribution to understanding the systematic patterns across the globe. The field of world politics currently represents a pivotal interaction between markets, states, and non-states actors and has done so since the formation of states (if not before). However, the knowledge we have is not well dissemated to the public avenues and the blogs that report on emerging trends in the field are few in number. As such, we offer another avenue for which people can view important work, discuss its implications, and potentially engage its authors.
People
Michael is an Associate Professor in Political Science at Boise State University with a focus in International Relations, Comparative Politics, and Methodology (quantitative and formal). His work includes issues related to military basing abroad, asymmetric relations, foreign policy, cooperation, and conflict. He received his Ph.D from Binghamton University in 2011.
K. Chad Clay is an associate professor in the Department of International Affairs at the University of Georgia and co-director of the CIRI Human Rights Data Project. He received his PhD in political science from Binghamton University in 2012. His areas of specialization are international relations, comparative politics, and quantitative methodology. His research focuses on the impact of international factors on human rights practices, political violence, and economic development. In particular, Chad has a strong research interest in the spatial diffusion of these political outcomes, as well as the institutions, organizations, and processes that generate such diffusion.
Ben is currently an assistant professor in the Department of Environmental Studies at Knox College. He received his PhD in Political Science from Binghamton University in 2014. Ben was previously a visiting assistant professor in the Department of Political Science at Hobart and William Smith Colleges, and previously held a research position in the Department of Political Science at Fordham University. His research and teaching interests are centered around parties and interest groups, particularly those from under-represented constituencies. A great deal of his work deals with the political organizations of the environmental movement. He studies both American and Comparative politics.
Michael Flynn is currently an associate professor in the Department of Political Science at Kansas State University. He received his Ph.D. in Political Science from Binghamton University in 2013 and was previously a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Political Science at the University of Alabama. His research focuses on the political and economic determinants of foreign policy. His research also focuses on the the influence of non-state actors and how they affect states’ policy choices, particularly with respect to human rights issues.
Carla is currently an associate professor in the Department of Political Science at Kansas State University. Her research focuses on coercion at both the international and domestic levels. In particular, she has been engaged in work on conflict outcomes, military policy, and repression. She has also done work on the various effects of U.S. troop deployments abroad on host-states’ policy choices.
Mike Touchton (Ph. D., University of Colorado) is an assistant professor of Political Science at Boise State University. He studies the comparative political economy of development and underdevelopment around the world—particularly in Asia and Latin America.
Julie VanDusky-Allen received her PhD in Political Science from Binghamton University and is an assistant professor at Boise State University. She studies Comparative Politics, American Politics, and Quantitative Research Methods. Her research focuses on institutional choice and development, political parties, the legislative process, and Latin American politics. For her dissertation, she received a Fulbright to do archival research and teach in Mexico City in the 2008-2009 academic year.
Josh Zingher is a post doctoral fellow with the Institute for the American Constitutional Heritage at the University of Oklahoma. His research focuses on several aspects of American and comparative politics, including political behavior, parties, elections, and representation.