Research Papers

The University of California Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation (IGCC) was founded in 1983 as a multi-campus research unit serving the entire University of California system. IGCC addresses global challenges to peace and prosperity through academically rigorous, policy-relevant research, training, and outreach on international security, economic development, and the environment. IGCC brings scholars together across social science and lab science disciplines to work on topics such as regional security, nuclear proliferation, innovation and national security, development and political violence, emerging threats, and climate change.

As the University of California’s system-wide institute on international security, IGCC convenes expert researchers across UC campuses and the Lawrence Livermore and Los Alamos National Laboratories, along with US and international policy leaders, to develop solutions and provide insights on many of the most profound global security challenges. IGCC disseminates its research findings through its website, weekly newsletters, research briefs, working papers, books, and articles in peer-reviewed journals.

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Democratic Backsliding and Foreign Policy

(2024)

In this paper, we argue that the consequences of democratic backsliding are not limited to the domestic sphere. Instead, we posit that democratic erosion generates strong incentives for leaders to engage in hostile foreign policy behavior toward other states. We estimate a series of models using event data from 2005–2018 to test our hypothesis. Our results consistently support our argument, even after using estimators that account for potential endogeneity issues. Leaders of backsliding democracies are more likely to behave in an aggressive way toward other countries. Our confidence in these results is strengthened by multiple robustness checks, all of which point to the same conclusion. This paper demonstrates that backsliding states are more likely than full democracies to engage in aggressive actions toward other states, which has important academic and policy implications for understanding the international ramifications of democratic erosion.

Where Have All the Profits Gone? An Analysis of the Major Defense Contractors: 1950-1985

Kaun, David

(1988)

Arms Control: Problems and Prospects

(1987)

An examination of the viability and usefulness of arms control in the late 1980s, the paper looks at the prospects of arms controls to maintain peace and the dangers inherent to such agreements. The authors then provide a series of suggestions to improve the procedures surrounding arms control implementation and management.