National Power

The Diplometrics Program has built and released databases on international organizations, diplomatic exchange (embassies), and treaties monitored by the United Nations, including the National Power Indicies. The Diplometrics Program has also developed tools to help visualize and structure the data, such as the UN Voting Coincidence Dashboard. This data feeds a research agenda that is interested in measuring and modeling international relations and will inform the International Politics submodule of the International Futures (IFs) model.

The project expects to add to this data collection effort by producing data sets on non-state actors including international non-governmental organizations, multinational corporations, and others.
 

• What are the National Power Indices?

  The Pardee Center has developed several unique, multidimensional indices for measuring state power that conceptualize power as the potential for a state to realize its desired outcomes in the international system. These include the Global Power Index (GPI), the Hillebrand-Herman-Moyer Index (HHMI) (an adaptation of the Hillebrand-Herman Index (HHI), an externally developed index that is also included in the codebook below), and the Diplomacy, Military, Economy (DiME) capabilities index.

• How are the National Power Indices different from measures of national power?

  The Relative National Power project represents both an extension and a departure from the two most popular means of measuring state power in quantitative research: first, the Composite Index of National Capability (CINC) from the Correlates of War (COW) project; and second, economic size as measured by gross domestic product (GDP) at market exchange rates (MER), GDP at purchasing power parity (PPP), or gross national product (GNP) at MER. CINC, GPI, HHMI, HHI, and DiME all capture material capabilities, but the latter four indices go beyond CINC by incorporating nuclear weapons, technology, and international interactions (diplomatic networks and alliance networks).

• Can IFs forecast national power?

  The GPI, HHMI, HHI, and DiME are integrated into the IFs modeling platform, allowing users to forecast and build scenarios that reflect the changing distribution of power among the 186 countries in the model to 2100.