N. Uras Demir

About me

Hello, my name is Uras.

I am a PhD candidate at the University of California Irvine's Department of Political Science, a Smith Richardson Foundation World Politics and Statecraft Fellow, and a Pedagogical Fellow of UCI's Division on Teaching Innovation and Excellence. 

I focus on international relations and quantitative methods, and my dissertation research is on the relationship between global supply chains, conflict, and cooperation. I also conduct pedagogical research​ on political science education. 

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I have been selected as an instructor of record for Introduction to Political Science: Analysis at UCI, and I have worked as a teaching assistant for the School of Social Science's Statistics and Probability sequence for three years. I am also interested in data visualization and I work with both ggplot2 and Tableau.

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Before joining UCI's program, I received an MSc from Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commericales du Nord (EDHEC) in Lille, France, in Global Business with an academic concentration on International Finance. I hold a joint BSc from the State University of New York at Binghamton, and Middle East Technical University in Ankara, Turkey, in International Affairs. My native language is Turkish, I am conversational in French, and I have been studying Japanese at UCI.

National Power and the Structure of Global Supply Chain Trade

​In my dissertation research, I explore why asymmetrical interdependence in some supply chains incentivizes cooperation among states while in others exacerbates conflict. I argue that, where asymmetrical interdependence exists, substitutability and sophistication of intermediate good flows shape the outcomes. I demonstrate the causal mechanism using a mixed methods research design. In my case studies, I focus on the chains that produce integrated circuits (HS8542), semiconductor devices (HS8541), and electric batteries (HS8507). 

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.

Who is Winning the US- China Trade War: An Interrupted Time Series Approach

In this co-authored project, we explore the influence of the US-China trade war on both countries' trade with third parties using interrupted time series models. We argue that military alliances and polity similarities have played a significant role in reshaping third party trade strategies following the initiation of the trade conflict.

Diversity in Political Science Pedagogical Research: A Bayesian Estimation of Citation Identity

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).

Introduction to Political Science: Analysis

How do political scientists carry out research? Understanding how to conduct political science research is the best countermeasure against the rampant flow of misinformation and disinformation that is all around us. The objective of this course is to introduce students to the fundamentals of political science research design. The course covers what a political theory is, how we move from abstract theorizing to empirical measurement, how we carry out empirical measurements, and how we interpret and present empirical findings. While this course is primarily designed for political science majors, the practical research skills taught in this course will be applicable across all social science majors. [Syllabus coming soon]