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The essay describes new way to evaluate variation among simulations through six distinct categories. The six points involve the content of the simulation, the integration of the simulation with other aspects of the course, the length of a simulation, the strictness of rules, the interaction among students during the simulation, and assessment techniques. The essay uses these six points of variation as a framework to explain a new simulation integrated with course objectives, goals, lecture material, two short research essays, and other class activities designed to teach game theory applied to current international problems. The simulation described in this essay uses current world issues to help students incorporate class content, game theoretic modeling, and strategic interaction into an international negotiation conducted in class. In addition to presenting the simulation, the essay assesses the benefits and costs of the simulation and course design through student feedback and instructor evaluation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines rhetoric and framing as one influence over international humanitarian intervention. The paper examines the influence of rhetoric and communicative action on a "harder" case in international politics. Theoretically, using rhetoric and selecting the type and content of information presented to the public can influence the content of and interest in issues on the international agenda, including security issues. However, the examination of the use of soft power and rhetorical framing is relatively under explored in international relations theory. The paper examines the theoretical dimensions of framing and agenda setting before describing the importance of framing and rhetoric in the pursuit of NATO member intervention in the former Yugoslavia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What causes a particaular issue frame to become salient for states? Why do some issue frames, such as the eradication of landmines or negative aspects of climate change, gain international attention quickly, while others, such as preventing child labor or the danger of small arms trading, never get substantial international attention? The use of rhetoric to frame policy issues often influences the amount of attention to an issue and the ability to generate support, yet our understanding of the factors that contribute to why particular rhetoric becomes dominant is limited. Often, domestic and international actors present different descriptions of policy issues in order to advance their own policy views. This project seeks to understand how the issue description and the uses of a variety of power resources contribute to emergence of a dominant frame for international issues. The paper develops a concept of frames to understand how issue definitions change over time through analytical, normative, and temporal elements. In addition, the paper develops hypotheses for potential causes of changing frames and conducts a plausibility probe of these hypotheses on the case of whaling between 1850 through 2004. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although agenda setting terminology are used in most accounts of international outcomes dealing with international organization, cooperation, and treaty formation, very little is understood in terms of defining the international agenda, variation in the agenda, as well the processes by which the international agenda may change over time. This paper defines international agendas, issues, and the content of issues using frames and conceptualizes variation of agendas and issues across time. The concepts and definitions are presented theoretically before an application in the case of whaling and environmental politics. The dominant whaling frame changed twice during the history of the whaling issue. During this time, the issue moved onto the international agenda after the first shift in issue frame and changed policy prescriptions after the second shift in issue frame. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global agenda setting (also described as issue emergence) has largely been overlooked by researchers in international politics, contrary to the vast amount of research into domestic agenda setting by scholars studying U.S. politics. One of the reasons global agenda setting has been neglected stems from a lack of a standard approach to agenda setting that can be used in the international arena. This paper identifies a way to study international agenda setting through the use of framing. Using the framing perspective allows us to examine change and continuity in frames over time as opposed to the rather idiosyncratic way global agenda setting research has been examined in the past. The paper proposes understanding issue emergence by looking at the moral, analytical, and temporal aspects of a frame and their dominance in international discourse. In addition, the paper describes the most likely influences on frame dominance as sources for hypotheses to guide future research on international issue emergence. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Various researchers have created large datasets of variables related to war, economic sanctions, human rights, and comparative political institutions. The value of these datasets in fostering research progress in international relations depends on their providing high-quality quantitative data on fundamentally qualitative variables. Developing such large-N datasets that accurately capture variables not easily quantified requires careful attention to a range of factors involving measurement theory, particularly construct validity and reliability, and management of a research team. The paper argues that good dataset creation should develop variables and values that reflect both conceptually useful categories and accurately capture empirical variation, define the population of cases and identify members of that population, and systematically collect evidence on those cases. Coding manuals should have clear, complete, explicit, and well-documented coding rules and procedures. Training and coding should be conducted in ways that mitigate the introduction of non-empirical variation into the dataset. All dataset creation procedures should be carefully documented and made transparent to users, with special attention paid to providing users with evidence regarding dataset reliability and dataset construct validity. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Generating good and useful quantitative measures from qualitative information is almost never a simple endeavor. Although almost all researchers would agree that we should consider issues of measurement reliability and validity, there is little guidance on how we should consider them. This paper explores the theoretical defining characteristics of reliability, validity, accuracy, and precision drawing on various theoretical perspectives to delineate them as separate characteristics of measures. Furthermore, the paper demonstrates how and when scholars should present indicators of reliability in particular, drawing significantly from the psychometric and education research traditions. Finally, the paper tests how well political science scholars indicate reliability by empirically examining articles in prominent journals. This study promotes the use of reliability indicators to improve the verifiability of research in political science and increase the cumulatively and progress of findings and data creation. By incorporating reliability estimates, qualitative researchers will be able to justify their measures, and quantitative researchers can expand their research into areas outside clearly observable numerical units of analysis. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]