Computer Applications in Teaching International Political Interaction

1989 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 8-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey D. Sadow ◽  
Robert S. Jordan ◽  
Paul Sanchez-Navarro

As the computer more and more becomes a tool to further quantitative political science research, the data analysis function threatens to overshadow the use of computers as information processors. Among the many functions of contemporary computer software is the ability to move text from user to user. These packages, available on almost any mainframe system, generally take the form of “electronic mail” systems and have proven invaluable for academics in communicating with each other around the world, making information thousands of miles distant seem located just around the corner.Mail systems do not diminish in utility even when used just around the corner. Users recognize the benefit of distant information acting as if of local origin, but should not miss the converse. Information local in nature, in using mail systems, can appear to originate from sources far away if the users choose to view the information in that fashion. In essence, mail systems provide the means to model a framework simulating interaction among international political actors.Thus the computer provides an ideal instrument to model diplomacy in the classroom and can aid instruction on the concept of diplomacy. When taken in the abstract, it seems difficult to teach diplomacy. Several questions arise concerning the concept's place in academia. First, why teach it? The answer lies in the state system. Nations behave as to achieve goals. War presents the starkest and most violent means to attain them, but nations often can eschew war and pursue goals by peaceful meansn—diplomacy. To creditably teach the behavior of nations requires investigation of diplomacy.

2011 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gary Saunders

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.5in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 10pt;">The U.S. Department of Defense originally designed the Internet to increase the productivity of government workers and it has now become an enormous opportunity for businesses to advertise, correspond with clients, order from suppliers, and conduct many other business functions at minimal cost.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>The Internet has achieved faster acceptance by Americans than any other previous technologies and businesses are already discovering that the Web is having a profound impact on how they conduct business.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Conservative estimates are for Internet retail sales to reach $7 billion by the year 2000, and some respected analysts predict it to grow to $100 billion over the next five to eight years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>As with any new initiative, there are costs, benefits, and risks associated with the undertaking.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Anyone who wishes to maintain a Web site on the Internet can do so at a modest cost, or in some cases at no cost.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>One of the many benefits to be gained from placing a company on the Internet such as gaining access to the World Wide Web (WWW).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>The WWW gives anyone who is connected the ability to communicate with distant computers all over the world and provides the benefit of being able to send and receive electronic mail (E-mail).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>While there are a number of different risks incurred when a company establishes a Web site and goes on the Internet the biggest concern, by far, is security.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>When a company installs a Web server at their site, they open a window into their local network that the entire Internet can peer through.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>These substantial risks notwithstanding, the Internet provides an opportunity that business cannot afford to pass up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>The number of companies that have already taken advantage of the Internet and the rapid increase in the number of Internet users has fueled a phenomenal growth in electronic commerce.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>The Internet provides an excellent opportunity to increase sales at a lower marginal cost than was possible before.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Companies that pass up this tremendous opportunity will probably<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>not survive in the 21<sup>st</sup> century competitive climate.</span></p>


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jae Yeon Kim ◽  
Yee Man Margaret Ng

Computational methods have become an integral part of political science research. However, helping students to acquire these new skills is challenging because programming proficiency is necessary, and most political science students have little coding experience. This article presents pedagogical strategies to make transitioning from Excel to R or Python for data analytics less painful and more exciting. First, it discusses two approaches for making computational methods accessible: showing the big picture and breaking down the workflow. Next, a step-by-step guide for a typical course is provided through three examples: learning programming fundamentals, wrangling messy data, and communicating data analysis.


Author(s):  
Nadia E. Brown ◽  
Guillermo Caballero ◽  
Sarah Gershon

At its heart, intersectionality is a study of relative power. As such, political scientists have employed this approach as both a theory and method to examine political behavior and the state’s interaction with social groups as citizens and noncitizens. Intersectionality is a framework that recognizes the interconnectedness of sociopolitical categories that overlap with systems of discrimination or disadvantage. The study of intersectionality is interdisciplinary and does not have one academic home. As such, we compiled a list of texts that have used this concept, methodological framework, or theoretical approach to answer questions using a political science lens with the goal of providing a broad summary of contemporary research in this field. Furthermore, we made an effort to represent research that highlights the variation among social groups, regions, and issues as a way to illustrate the diversity within intersectional research projects. In political science, intersectionality has been used as a normative theoretical argument and a methodological approach to empirical research. Rooted in Black feminist theory and praxis, intersectionality has been employed as an analytical tool to bring to light issues of marginalization and systematic oppression that were previously invisible by using a single axis approach. Much of political science research seeks to understand the experiences of those with one or more marginalized identities as political actors. The research in this field is diverse in the populations and questions examined as well as the methods employed. Contemporary research on intersectionality includes comparative and international research on nations around the world. It explores the role of institutions, culture, and context as well as individual political identities, attitudes, and behavior. This scholarship also examines the differences of experiences within populations—such as women and racial, ethnic, or religious minorities often grouped for analysis in other fields. In applying an intersectional analysis to political experiences of these populations, this research often highlights the ways in which different identities are associated with distinct attitudes, behavior, and political outcomes. As a result, intersectionality research in political science offers deeper insights into political phenomena that were previously examined with a single axis approach. For example, studies of women’s political involvement that did not account for difference among groups of women failed to account for how ethno-racial, sexual orientation, nativity, disability, or religion may have influenced women’s political experiences and political outcomes. Among the debates engaged by this literature are questions revolving around the political experiences associated with multiple marginalized identities. Specifically, do groups, candidates, or public officials who possess multiple marginalized identities experience a so-called double disadvantage? Some research indicates this is the case, while others find strategic advantage associated with intersectional identities.


Author(s):  
Quan Li

Since the invention of Word2Vec by a Google team in 2013, natural language processing (NLP) techniques have been increasingly applied in the private sector, by government agencies across countries, and in the social sciences. This chapter explains NLP’s basic analytical procedure from preprocessing of raw text data to statistical modeling, reviews the most recent advances in NLP applications in political science, and proposes a new scaling approach for measuring political actors’ spatial preferences along with potential application in decision-making research. It argues that with a greater focus on explaining behavioral mechanisms and processes, which is a goal shared by artificial intelligence/computational modeling and cognitive science, NLP can help improve behavioral political science by its ability to integrate micro-, meso-, and macro-level analyses. Critical and reflexive use of NLP techniques, combined with big data, will lead to obtain better insights on political behavior in general.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Werner J. Patzelt

This volume presents the current state of German parliamentary research with respect to topics, theories and methods. All of that is put into the contexts of both German traditions of parliamentary ideas and pertinent international discussions. In addition, the book discusses the qualitative and quantitative methods used in data collection and data analysis and illustrates them with many examples from recent research. In doing so, this volume offers a textbook on empirical political science research as well. It serves as a reference work for research on parliamentarianism and will be an indispensable resource for instructors, students and all those interested in parliamentary issues.


1983 ◽  
Vol 22 (03) ◽  
pp. 124-130 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. H. Bemmel

At first sight, the many applications of computers in medicine—from payroll and registration systems to computerized tomography, intensive care and diagnostics—do make a rather chaotic impression. The purpose of this article is to propose a scheme or working model for putting medical information systems in order. The model comprises six »levels of complexity«, running parallel to dependence on human interaction. Several examples are treated to illustrate the scheme. The reason why certain computer applications are more frequently used than others is analyzed. It has to be strongly considered that the differences in complexity and dependence on human involvement are not accidental but fundamental. This has consequences for research and education which are also discussed.


1978 ◽  
Vol 17 (01) ◽  
pp. 28-35
Author(s):  
F. T. De Dombal

This paper discusses medical diagnosis from the clinicians point of view. The aim of the paper is to identify areas where computer science and information science may be of help to the practising clinician. Collection of data, analysis, and decision-making are discussed in turn. Finally, some specific recommendations are made for further joint research on the basis of experience around the world to date.


2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 227-252
Author(s):  
Deborah Solomon

This essay draws attention to the surprising lack of scholarship on the staging of garden scenes in Shakespeare's oeuvre. In particular, it explores how garden scenes promote collaborative acts of audience agency and present new renditions of the familiar early modern contrast between the public and the private. Too often the mention of Shakespeare's gardens calls to mind literal rather than literary interpretations: the work of garden enthusiasts like Henry Ellacombe, Eleanour Sinclair Rohde, and Caroline Spurgeon, who present their copious gatherings of plant and flower references as proof that Shakespeare was a garden lover, or the many “Shakespeare Gardens” around the world, bringing to life such lists of plant references. This essay instead seeks to locate Shakespeare's garden imagery within a literary tradition more complex than these literalizations of Shakespeare's “flowers” would suggest. To stage a garden during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries signified much more than a personal affinity for the green world; it served as a way of engaging time-honored literary comparisons between poetic forms, methods of audience interaction, and types of media. Through its metaphoric evocation of the commonplace tradition, in which flowers double as textual cuttings to be picked, revised, judged, and displayed, the staged garden offered a way to dramatize the tensions produced by creative practices involving collaborative composition and audience agency.


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