Special Seminar: Yuke Li - A Network Approach to International Relations

“A Network Approach to International Relations”

 

Yuke Li, PhD Candidate

Yale University

 

 

Special Seminar 

Monday, April 10, 2017

12:30 – 1:30 p.m.

301 CSL

 

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Abstract:

We develop a new, systematic framework of countries’ behavior in international relations, which seeks to capture two elements of their behavior: how they engage with the (networked) international environment and how they seek to change the (networked) international environment.

 

We first build a power allocation game on networks to model how countries engage with the international environment by strategically deploying their power to pursue their objectives, such as ensuring their survival and that of their friends, and opposing that of their foes. Then we extend this game to model how countries may change the international environment in their favor toward one in which they can more easily pursue those objectives through forming/changing relationships with others, such as establishing alliances.

 

The framework can also be usefully employed to study numerous empirical questions, and to reveal new perspectives on some commonly accepted hypotheses in the literature.

Bio:

Yuke Li is a PhD candidate in Political Science at Yale University. She graduated from Peking University in 2011 with a Bachelor’s degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics. Her research focuses on games on graphs, multi-agent systems, with particular applications in social sciences.