N. Uras Demir
PhD Candidate,
Department of Political Science
University of California, Irvine
About me
I am a PhD candidate at the University of California Irvine's Department of Political Science and a Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Predoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Tokyo's Institute of Social Science. I was formerly a Smith Richardson Foundation World Politics and Statecraft Fellow, and a UC Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation Dissertation Fellow.
I specialize in international relations and research methods. My research explores the relationship between contemporary interdependence, conflict, and cooperation by focusing on global supply chains. I was a Pedagogical Fellow and a two-time Teaching Apprentice at UC Irvine's Division of Teaching Excellence and Innovation. I taught Political Analysis and Introduction to International Relations at UC Irvine and worked as a teaching assistant for ten courses among which I assisted instruction in Statistics and Probability six times.
Beyond my academic responsibilities, I am interested in data science and data visualization. I have extensive experience with R, SQL, and Tableau. I received my MSc from Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commericales du Nord (EDHEC) in Lille, France, in Global Business with a concentration on International Finance, and my joint BSc from the State University of New York at Binghamton, and Middle East Technical University in Ankara, Turkey, in International Relations. My native language is Turkish, I am conversational in French, and I have limited fluency in Japanese.
Research
National Power and the Structure of Global Supply Chain Trade
In my dissertation research, I explore why contemporary interdependence incentivizes cooperation for some states while exacerbates conflict for others. I argue that, where interdependence is significant, composition of intermediate good flows shape the outcomes. Using clustering algorithms I categorize intermediate goods based on universal attributes at the commodity level to demonstrate compositional differences across interdependent states. Additionally, I develop an index that quantifies interstate conflict and cooperation based on event data. I demonstrate the causal mechanism using a mixed methods research design that entails multilevel modeling, case studies, and interviews.
Are Global Supply Chains Vital for China’s Leaders?
In this co-authored chapter, we begin by exploring China's outward looking political economy model and the role global supply chains play in it. We then identify mounting challenges to China's supply chain activities and identify three ideal-typical views within China's leadership towards the GSCs. We argue that the balance between these views will have significant consequences for the future of global interdependence. In Etel Solingen (Ed.) 2021. Geopolitics, Supply Chains, and International Relations of East Asia. Cambridge University Press.
Do Allies' Supply Chains Also Follow the Flag?
In this co-authored project, we explore the influence of the US-China trade war on both countries' trade with third parties using the synthetic control approach. We argue that military alliances have played a significant role in shaping third party trade strategies following the initiation of the trade conflict. We test our argument using a quasi-experimental design that employs counterfactual estimation. This paper is currently under review.
The Role of Games in International Relations Education: Preference, Learning, and Retention
In this co-authored piece, we utilize teaching-as-research to study the effects of competitive and collaborative games in international relations education. We introduce novel games for undergraduate students to play in the classroom that relate to the assumptions and expectations of realist and liberal theories. We utilize a post-pre survey design to estimate effect of the games for student preference towards courses with games, and efficacy of the games for learning, and retention.
Diversity in Political Science Pedagogical Research: A Bayesian Estimation of Identity in Citation Networks
In this co-authored piece, we focus on the evolution of inclusivity in political science pedagogical research using an original dataset on journal publications between 2005 and 2020. We carry out an analysis of citation identity through Bayesian estimation using the WRU package (Imai and Khanna, 2016).
Teaching
Political Analysis
How do political scientists carry out research? This R-integrated course aims to introduce students to the fundamentals of computational political science. The course covers the basics of research design, data gathering, the use of R for data wrangling, visualization, and analysis, and the application of basic quantitative methods to answer research questions. While this course is primarily designed for political science majors, the practical and transferable research skills taught in this course will be applicable across all social science majors (and beyond the campus).
Introduction to International Relations
What are the causes of change in the international system? This course explores how states and nonstate actors interact with each other. It examines the key theories, concepts, and debates in the field and discusses contemporary global issues such as trade, technology, human rights, and climate change. It also explores how globalization shapes the behavior of states and other actors. This course provides a foundation for students to pursue their studies in international relations.
Teaching Assistant
I served as a teaching assistant for ten quarters for the following courses at UC Irvine: year-long Statistics and Probability sequence (twice), Computer-Based Research in Social Sciences, Political Science Research Design, Introduction to International Relations, and Introduction to Economics.
[Student evaluations: Statistics and Probability 10A]
[Student evaluations: Statistics and Probability 10B]
[Student evaluations: Statistics and Probability 10C]
[Student evaluations: Computer Based Social Science Research 3A]
[Student evaluations: Introduction to International Relations 41A]
[Student evaluations: Political Science Research Design 6A]
[Student evaluations: Introduction to Economics 1A]
