Titled Asymmetric Interdependence and Statecraft: Building Knowledge to Explicate Great Power Coercion Dilemmas at the Security-Economy Nexus, the project disaggregates, induces, and validates basic knowledge concerning the conditions and processes of cross-domain great power coercion. It will explore and test existing and emerging patterns, stakeholders, and operative conditions that characterize Russia and China’s approaches to coercion across several dimensions of economic interdependence.

The project will mesh events and structured data-sets, employ multilingual big data analytics, interactive visualizations, and qualitative methods to probe dynamics of great power relations. By integrating findings into meta-models of strategic interaction, it will generate/refine analytical frameworks to assess the modalities, trade-offs, and outcomes of deep and asymmetric interdependence for cross-domain coercion and escalation management in U.S. relations with Russia and China.

The project is spearheaded by Dr. Adam N. Stulberg, Nunn Chair and professor at the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs, who is joined by Dr. Erica Briscoe, chief technology officer (interim) and chief scientist at ATAS Laboratory within the Georgia Tech Research Institute, and Stephan De Spiegeleire, senior scientist at the Hague Center for Strategic Studies. 

According to Dr. Stulberg, “The hope is to provide empirical and analytical grist for studies on the drivers and trends in great power politics and statecraft that may challenge conventional wisdom while keeping pace with the dynamics of the contemporary period and future scenarios.”   

The project will fund senior and junior faculty, staff, and graduate and undergraduate students until September 2022.

More about Minerva

The Minerva Research Initiative supports social science research aimed at improving our basic understanding of security, broadly defined. All supported projects are university-based and unclassified, with the intention that all work be shared widely to support thriving stable and safe communities. The goal is to improve DoD’s basic understanding of the social, cultural, behavioral, and political forces that shape regions of the world of strategic importance to the U.S.