Research

I research how constituencies shape the strategic context their leaders navigate at all levels of analysis. In the broadest sense, I am interested in understanding the relationship between, as Schelling put it, the micromotives of actors and the macrobehavior of the system within which they interact. In practice, my research tends to focus on how voter preferences affect the behavior of leaders engaged in international bargaining and how states’ preferences shape great powers’ hegemonic ambitions.

Methodologically, I use formal and computational models to demonstrate the internal validity of my arguments and behavioral experiments and statistical methods to ensure their external validity. I seek to introduce statistical tools that combine modeling and estimation to alleviate the problems of data scarcity I have faced in my own research.

My research is organized along three lines of investigations (links):

  1. How does the distribution of public preferences impact the ability of leaders to engage in international bargaining?
  2. How do great powers navigate the relation between international orders and wars?
  3. What statistical tools can help political scientists manage data scarcity?