Zijue Cartland Zhou
Biography
How do powerful states shape the course of conflicts around the world? Arms and technology required to fight modern warfare are produced and controlled by a select few countries. My dissertation research seeks to understand conflict initiation and escalation through the transfer of arms and the resulting power dynamics shaping the structure of the international system. Leveraging recent advances in machine learning, I introduce a novel mixed-medium dataset of arms transfer with archival documents from the U.S., UK, and China, detailing state incentive behind selected foreign arms transfers. In addition, I explore case studies of Israel-Hamas, China-India, and Azerbaijan-Armenia, to supplement the quantitative evidence. I then theorize and test mechanisms through which states use arms transfer as means of projecting power and exerting control over others. Moreover, foreign arms transfers are crucial towards the persistence and longevity of many conflicts today. I argue that this process is one of the foundational pillars of constraint and escalation in modern warfare. As a result, disentangling and mapping out pathways utilized by powerful states to manipulate the progression of conflict is crucial for a generalizable logic of strategic deterrence. This project elucidates the role of arms transfer in conflict through a novel two-dimensional level analysis of power perception.
Education
BA, Political Science, New York University 2018; MA, Political Science, New York University 2019
Research Interests
International Relations
Graduate Advisors
Eric Min
