This award supports the participation of eight U.S. social scientists in a U.S.-Swiss seminar on cooperative models in international relations research to be held in Geneva, Switzerland in December, 1988. The seminar is jointly organized by Professor Michael Intriligator, Director of the Center for International and Strategic Affairs, UCLA, and Urs Luterbacher, Director of the Center for Empirical Research in International Relations, Graduate Institute of International Studies, Geneva. The seminar will bring together social scientists in various disciplines (economics, political science, international relations, game theory, etc.) with a common interest in cooperative process models, in order to survey the current state of such models in international relations research, to develop new approaches to such research, and to stimulate additional research in this area. Participants will consider the causes and consequences of international cooperation at the superpower, regional and global levels. Fundamental but potentially complementary differences in methodology between the U.S. and Swiss communities, as well as the disciplinary diversity of the participants, will enrich the meeting. Switzerland has one of the largest concentrations of researchers in this field in all of Western Europe; much of their research has involved collaboration between political scientists and economists. Swiss researchers are particularly known for the development and use of simulation models and other types of dynamic models that make use of empirical estimates, optimization techniques and rational choice concepts. American researchers have developed and used game theoretic methods, especially repeated non-zero sum game strategies in their studies of cooperation versus conflict scenarios. The joint seminar should advance the development and synthesis of models of cooperative behavior applicable to international security, politico-economic relations and other forms of interaction among nations. Its aim is not only to produce explanations of existing situations but also to generate normative conclusions as to how to conduct cooperative approaches to international issues, particularly those of international security and international crisis management.
