Freakonomics Radio
Speak Softly and Carry Big Data
Do economic sanctions work? Are big democracies any good at spreading democracy? What is the root cause of terrorism? It turns out that data analysis can help answer all these questions — and make better foreign-policy decisions.
At the moment, the United States has a relatively charged relationship with, among others, China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, and Venezuela. The stakes in each case are high; the issues are complex. And the outcomes will reverberate for decades, if not longer.
Fortunately for policymakers, a group of researchers at the Chicago Project on Security and Threats (C-POST) has been conducting data-driven research on foreign policy and international security. We talked to those experts, as well as a couple of high-ranking practitioners of foreign policy, about what works, what doesn’t, and what to make of U.S. foreign policy during the current administration.
Robert Pape is a political scientist and the founder of C-POST. The project’s mission is to use data to tackle some of the most important foreign-policy questions of the day. After the September 11th attacks, Pape compiled a database of suicide attacks around…
