Moyer, J., Meisel, C., Szymanski-Burgos, A., Scott, A., Casiraghi, M., Kurkul, A., Hughes, M., Kettlun, W., McKee, K., Matthews, A., (2025, March 17). When heads of government and state (HOGS) fly: Introducing the country and organizational leader travel (COLT) dataset measuring foreign travel by HOGS. International Studies Quarterly, Volume 69, Issue 2, June 2025, sqaf013, https://doi.org/10.1093/isq/sqaf013

Despite representing a crucial day-to-day diplomatic tool, travel by heads of government and state (HOGS) has remained an under-investigated topic in international relations, inhibiting our ability to better understand how these visits change foreign aid, interstate conflict, diplomatic affinities, and more. Here, we fill that gap by introducing the first global dataset on the foreign visits of state leaders, the Country and Organizational Leader Travel (COLT) dataset, which allows us to present descriptive analysis and assess the monadic and dyadic drivers of foreign travel by HOGS. We find evidence consistent with previous literature explaining the motives of leader travel: development, trade, conflict, institutional co-membership, and regime type. In addition, we show a potential further application of the dataset, presenting original results on the relation between diplomatic visits and international trade. Overall, these data represent a unique indicator of international interaction that cuts across levels of analysis.

Meisel, C., & Szymanski-Burgos, A. (2023, August 3). Why many Nigeriens want Russia in and the West out. Time Magazine. https://time.com/6301177/niger-african-support-russia/

In Time, Pardee Center Research Associate Adam Szymanski-Burgos and Collin Meisel explain how the U.S. and Europe are poised to fall further and further behind their geopolitical competitors in terms of aid, trade, arms transfers, and diplomatic engagement on the African continent—key sources of international influence. Unless Western leaders change tack, Western publics should prepare for more waving of the white, blue, and red—Russia’s tricolor flag—than of the American red, white, and blue in capitals beyond Niamey, Niger.