Data that makes geopolitical relationships measurable.

One foundation of this work is Diplometrics, Pardee’s effort to measure international relationships that are often discussed qualitatively but difficult to compare systematically.

Our Diplometrics Program seeks to better understand and measure relationships in the international system by gathering data, building tools, and conducting analysis. The program identifies international interactions that measure the depth and breadth of political, diplomatic, economic, security, and cultural ties between countries.

These datasets help researchers, policymakers, journalists, students, and practitioners examine diplomacy, influence, cooperation, security, and risk across countries and over time. Some Diplometrics work connects to International Futures (IFs) and bilateral modeling, while other datasets and tools stand alone as open resources for geopolitical research and policy analysis. 

The connection between scholarship and use depends on a shared analytical foundation: original data, open tools, and models that make assumptions explicit.

Pardee’s geopolitical analysis is built on a combination of original datasets, open tools, and scenario-based modeling. Diplometrics datasets help make international relationships measurable. International Futures (IFs) adds a way to study how those relationships may evolve alongside changes in development, economics, demography, governance, trade, aid, diplomacy, and geopolitical influence.

Diplometrics helps describe observed relationships among countries. IFs helps users examine how some of those relationships may change under different assumptions. IFs includes bilateral modeling that simulates country-to-country relationships across more than 35,000 country pairs annually in areas such as trade, aid, diplomacy, and geopolitical influence. This structure connects country-level development with country-pair relationships, allowing Pardee to incorporate network characteristics into its modeling framework. This matters because shifts in one country’s development, alliances, or capacity can affect not only that country’s outlook but also its relationships across the international system.

For those facing questions about geopolitical relationships, influence, risk, or plausible pathways, Pardee can help translate broad concerns into measurable assumptions, comparable evidence, and scenario-based analysis.