Simulations as Lab Experiments: Gender, Security and Success in Diplomacy

Simulations are increasingly recognized in political science as effective tools for promoting active learning and fostering transferable skills beyond the classroom. This dissertation demonstrates that simulations serve a dual purpose: enhancing student learning outcomes across performance levels and providing a rigorous methodological platform for foreign policy research. When carefully designed, simulations generate rich behavioral data that allow researchers to investigate complex, multi-level decision-making processes. Through a trade war simulation modeling U.S.–China negotiations, the study examines the role of gender and security linkage in shaping diplomatic outcomes. By randomizing gender at the individual, institutional, and structural levels, the findings suggest that women's presence expands the bargaining range by incorporating more discrete preferences into negotiation processes, though this comes at the expense of women's individual performance—gender diversity in diplomatic teams expands equity. Additionally, by randomizing the inclusion of security interests within participant teams, the study finds that securitization significantly decreases negotiation utility and increases the likelihood of bargaining failure. Together, these findings underscore simulations’ value as both pedagogical instruments and experimental laboratories for analyzing strategic interaction in international politics.

Grantor dc:publisher

University of Kansas

Year dc:date.issued

2025

Author dc:creator

• Shanks, Spencer Allen

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Zhang, Jiakun J.

• International relations
• Gender studies
• Pedagogy
• Bargaining Theory
• Diplomacy
• Gender
• Simulations
• Trade

Statement dc:rights

• This item is protected by copyright and unless otherwise specified the copyright of this thesis/dissertation is held by the author.

Language dc:language.iso

en

Dc Identifier Other

https://www.proquest.com/LegacyDocView/DISSNUM/32041838

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/38086