Dr Brandon Yoder
Areas of expertise
- Political Science 1606
- International Relations 160607
- Comparative Government And Politics 160603
- Government And Politics Of Asia And The Pacific 160606
- Experimental Economics 140206
Research interests
International Security, US-China Relations, Chinese Politics, Politics of East Asia, Power Transitions, Signaling and Credibility, Formal Models, Lab Experiments, Foreign Policy, Comparative Democratization
Researcher's projects
UNDER REVIEW
Signaling Under the Security Dilemma: An Experimental Analysis (with Kyle Haynes). Forthcoming at Journal of Conflict Resolution
Costly Talk: Covert Action, Transparency, and Credible Reassurance. Revise and resubmit at International Organization
How Informative are China’s Foreign Policy Signals? IR Theory and the Debate about China’s Intentions. Accepted at Chinese Journal of International Politics
Reciprocation or Resolve? The Tradeoffs of Conditional Foreign Policy Strategies (with Kyle Haynes). Under review at Journal of Conflict Resolution
Edited Volume: International Relations Theory and China-Russia Relations after the Cold War (Under contract with Palgrave-Macmillan)
It has been widely noted that China and Russia have grown progressively closer over the last two decades, yet the bilateral relationship has been the subject of very little scrutiny using rigorous theory. This volume addresses the theoretical lacuna in the literature on China-Russia relations by bringing together leading scholars of international relations from various theoretical perspectives, as well as theoretically-informed experts in Chinese and/or Russian foreign policy. The chapters work in combination to both improve our understanding of a crucially important contemporary case, while also advancing IR theory in substantial ways.
Special Issue: International Relations Theory and China-India Relations (Under Review at Journal of Contemporary China)
WORKING PAPERS
Mixed Signals: The Limits of Reassurance in International Relations
China’s Rise and the ‘Engagement-Containment’ Debate
Signaling and Socialization: Reassurance with Endogenous Preferences (with Kyle Haynes)
The Policy Relevance of Formal Models
How Third-Party Threats Facilitate Credible Reassurance
Power Shifts, Multiple Audiences and Credible Cheap-Talk Signals
Realism’s Goldilocks Problem: Explaining Balancing Patterns in China-Russia Relations (with Alexander Korolev)
Provocation versus Resolve in Coercive Bargaining (with Kyle Haynes)
Book Manuscript: Uncertainty and Decline: Power Shifts, Credible Signaling, and US-China Relations
How can the US and other states form accurate beliefs about the intentions of a rising China? Signaling during power shifts has also been dramatically undertheorized, and the literature on China’s rise lack systematic criteria for inferring China’s intentions. This project presents a novel theoretical framework that identifies conditions under which a rising state’s behavioral signals are more or less credible, and criteria that scholars and policymakers can use to infer a state’s foreign policy goals from its past actions. The findings al two chapters applied to contemporary US-China relations, to assess the credibility of China’s recent foreign policy signals and derive implications for US foreign policy.
Publications
- Haynes, K & Yoder, B 2020, 'Offsetting Uncertainty: Reassurance with Two-Sided Incomplete Information', American Journal of Political Science, vol. 64, no. 1, pp. 38-51.
- Yoder, B & Haynes, K 2020, 'Mutual Uncertainty and Credible Communication: Experimental Evidence', International Interactions, vol. 46, no. 4, pp. 1-18.
- Yoder, B 2020, 'Theoretical Rigor and the Study of Contemporary Cases: Explaining Post-Cold War China-Russia Relations', International Politics 57 (5), pp. 741-759.
- Yoder, B, Gaubatz, K & Schutte, R 2019, 'Political Groups, Coordination Costs and Credible Communication in the Shadow of Power', Political Science Quarterly, vol. 134, no. 3, pp. 507-536.