Assoc. Prof. Benjamin E. Goldsmith

BACKGROUND

Benjamin E. Goldsmith is an Associate Professor in the Department of Government and International Relations at the University of Sydney. His research and teaching are in the areas of international relations, comparative foreign policy, and political psychology. He is the author of the book Imitation in International Relations: Observational Learning, Analogies, and Foreign Policy in Russia and Ukraine, as well as articles in leading academic journals including European Journal of International Relations, Journal of Conflict Resolution, Journal of Peace Research, Journal of Politics and World Politics. He holds a Ph.D. in Political Science (Michigan 2001) and an M.A. in Russian Area Studies (Georgetown 1995). Before joining the University of Sydney in 2008, he taught at other universities in Australia, Singapore, and the United States.

Beginning in 2010, Goldsmith is a Chief Investigator on two research-grant projects with Prof. Arcot Sowmya (Computer Science, UNSW): 1) Discovery Grant, “Political Institutions, War, and Peace: Global and Regional Dynamics,” Australian Research Council, 2010-2012 and 2) R2P Research Grant, “Understanding and Forecasting Political Instability, Mass Atrocities, and Genocide: Combining Social Science and Machine Learning Approaches,” Australian Responsibility to Protect Fund, 2010-2011. He is also a member of the The ANU-MacArthur Asia Security Initiative, 2009-2012 and the Swedish Riksbankens Jubileumsfond East Asia Peace program, 2011-2015.

In 2009 Dr. Goldsmith co-organized the 3rd Australasian Conference on the Economics and Politics of War and Peace (26-27 June, University of Sydney).

During 2009 Dr. Goldsmith was a Research Associate with the United States Study Centre, Sydney in conjunction with the USSC research grant “Global Public Opinion and U.S. Foreign Policy: Trends over time and soft-power consequences” (with Yusaku Horiuchi).

RESEARCH

Research Interests

• War and peace
• Political Instability
• Defense spending
• Public opinion and foreign policy
• Learning and cognition in international relations

TEACHING

Current Courses

• GOVT2445 - American Politics and Foreign Policy
• GOVT6139 - Research Design
• GOVT 6119 - International Security

PUBLICATIONS

Books Authored and Edited

Goldsmith, BE & Brauer, J 2010, (eds), Economics of War and Peace: Economic, Legal, and Political Perspectives, Emerald, Bingley.

Goldsmith, BE 2005, Imitation in International Relations: Observational Learning, Analogies, and Foreign Policy in Russia and Ukraine, Palgrave Macmillan, New York.

Refereed Journal Articles

Goldsmith, BE, Butcher, C, Semenovich, D, & Sowmya, A (2013 forthcoming), "Forecasting the Onset of Genocide and Politicide: Annual Out-of-Sample Forecasts on a Global Dataset, 1988-2003", Journal of Peace Research.

Goldsmith, BE, (2013 forthcoming), "International Trade and the Onset and Escalation of Interstate Conflict: More to Fight About, or More Reasons Not to Fight?", Defence and Peace Economics.

Goldsmith, BE & Horiuchi, Y 2012, "In Search of Soft Power: Does foreign public opinion matter for U.S. foreign policy?", World Politics, vol. 64, no. 3, pp 555-585.

Goldsmith, BE & Linley, M 2012, "Engaged or Not? Perceptions of Australian Influence among Asian Publics", Japanese Journal of Political Science, vol. 13, no. 4.

Linley, M, Reilly, J & Goldsmith, BE 2012, "Who’s Afraid of the Dragon? Asian Mass Publics’ Perceptions of China’s Influence", Japanese Journal of Political Science, vol. 13, no. 4.

Goldsmith, BE & Horiuchi, Y 2009, "Spinning the Globe? U.S. Public Diplomacy and Foreign Public Opinion", Journal of Politics, vol. 71, no. 3, pp 863-875.

Goldsmith, BE, Chalup, SK & Quinlan MJ 2008, "Regime Type and International Conflict: Towards a general model", Journal of Peace Research, vol. 45, no. 6, pp 743-763.

Goldsmith, BE & He B 2008, "Letting Go without a Fight: Decolonization, Democracy, and War, 1900-94", Journal of Peace Research, vol. 45, no. 5, pp 587-611.

Goldsmith, BE 2007, "Arms Racing in ‘Space’: Spatial Modeling of Military Spending around the World", Australian Journal of Political Science, vol. 42, no. 3, pp 419-440.

Goldsmith, BE 2007, "Defense Effort and Institutional Theories of Democratic Peace and Victory: Why try harder?", Security Studies, vol. 16, no. 2, pp 189-222.

Goldsmith, BE 2007, "A Liberal Peace in Asia?", Journal of Peace Research, vol. 44, no. 1, pp 5-27.

Goldsmith, BE 2006, "A Universal Proposition?: Region, Conflict, War, and the Robustness of the Liberal Peace", European Journal of International Relations, vol. 12, no. 4, pp 533-563.

Goldsmith, BE 2006, "Regime Type, Post-Materialism, and International Public Opinion about U.S. Foreign Policy: The Afghan and Iraqi wars", Japanese Journal of Political Science, vol. 7, no. 1, pp 23-39.

Goldsmith, BE, Horiuchi Y, Inoguchi T 2005, "American Foreign Policy and Global Public Opinion: Who Supported the War in Afghanistan?", Journal of Conflict Resolution, vol. 49, no. 3, pp 408-429.

Horiuchi, Y, Goldsmith, BE & Inoguchi T 2005, "Global Public Opinion, Models and Methods: A Case Study of the 2001 U.S.-led War in Afghanistan", Leviathan, vol. 36, pp 62-81.

Goldsmith, BE 2003, "Bearing the Defense Burden, 1886-1989: Why Spend More?", Journal of Conflict Resolution, vol. 47, no. 5, pp 551-573.

Goldsmith, BE 2003, "Imitation in International Relations: Analogies, Vicarious Learning, and Foreign Policy", International Interactions, vol. 29, no. 3, pp 237-267.

Goldsmith, BE 2001, "Economic Liberalism and Security Preferences: A Comparative Case Study of Russia and Ukraine in the 1990s", Demokratizatsiya: The Journal of Post-Soviet Democratization, vol. 9, no. 3, pp 399-433.

Book Chapters

Goldsmith, BE, Semenovich, D, & Sowmya, A (2013 forthcoming), "Political Instability and Mass Killing: Comparing Causes in Asia and the Pacific and Globally", in D Mayersen & A Pohlman (eds), Genocide and Mass Atrocities in Asia: Legacies and Prevention, Routledge, New York.

Goot, M, Goldsmith, BE 2012, "Australia’s War in Iraq: Policy, Rhetoric and Public Opinion," in R Sobel, P Furia, & B Barratt (eds), Public Opinion and International Intervention: Lessons from the Iraq war, Potomac Books, Washington, DC.

Goldsmith, BE 2010, "A Liberal Peace in Asia?", in S Breslin & R Higgott (eds), The International Relations of the Asia-Pacific, SAGE Publications, Thousand Oaks.

Goldsmith, BE 1997, "Russia, Ukraine and Kazakstan: Corporate Citizenship in Unstable Environments", in A McGill et al., (eds), Corporate Global Citizenship: Doing Business In the Public Eye, New Lexington Press, San Francisco.

Goldsmith, BE 1997, "Corporate Citizenship in India: Multinational Corporate Experiences and Best Practices", in A McGill, et al., (eds), Corporate Global Citizenship: Doing Business In the Public Eye, New Lexington Press, San Francisco.

Selected Conference Papers

Semenovich, D, Sowmya, A, & Goldsmith BE 2012, "Predicting onsets of genocide with sparse additive models", paper presented at the International Conference on Pattern Recognition, November, 2012, Tsukuba City, Japan.

Goldsmith, BE, Semenovich, D, Sowmya, A & Grgic, G 2011, "Political Competition, Political Participation, and Democratic Peace in Asia and Africa," paper presented at the American Political Science Association annual meeting, September 1-4 2011, Seattle, Washington.

Goldsmith, BE 2011, "International Trade and the Onset and Escalation of Interstate Military Conflict in Asia," paper presented at ANU-MacArthur Asia Security Initiative Workshop, Peking University, Beijing, PRC, 17-18 May 2011.

Goldsmith, BE 2011, "Economic or Political Peace in East Asia?: Testing ‘Capitalist’ and ‘Democratic’ Peace Explanations," paper presented at special joint conference of the Association for Asian Studies and the International Convention of Asia Scholars, Honolulu, Hawai'i, March 31–April 3, 2011.

Goldsmith, BE, Semenovich, D, Sowmya, A 2011, "Political Instability and Large-Scale Violence in the Economic North and South: Comparing Causes," paper presented at the International Political Science Association – European Council for Political Research joint conference, Sao Paulo, Brazil, 16-19 February 2011.

Goldsmith, BE & Linley, M 2010, "Positively Ambivalent: Perceptions of Australian Influence Among Asian Publics," invited paper presented at the AsiaBarometer Workshop 2010, Sanjo Conference Hall, The University of Tokyo, 1-2 December 2010.

Book Reviews

Goldsmith, BE 2010, Power, Interdependence, and Nonstate Actors in World Politics, ed. by Milner, H & Moravcsik, A, Australian Journal of Political Science, vol. 45, no. 3, pp 525-526.

Goldsmith, BE 2003, Russia’s Far East: A Region at Risk, ed. by Thornton, J & Ziegler, C, Asian Journal of Political Science, vol. 11, no. 1, pp 124-127.

Goldsmith, BE 2001, Dangerous Weapons, Desperate States: Russia, Belarus, Kazakstan, and Ukraine, ed. by Bertsch, G & Potter, W, Canadian Journal of Political Science, vol. 34, no. 4, pp 898-900.

Goldsmith, BE 2001, Which Lessons Matter? : American foreign policy decision making in the Middle East, 1979-1987., by Hemmer, C International Politics, vol 38, no. 2, pp 294-295.

Goldsmith, BE 2000, "The Psychology of Being Overtaken By Events", From the Cold War to a New Era, by Oberdorfer, D, Peace and Conflict: The Journal of Peace Psychology, vol. 6, no. 3, pp 281-284.

COMMENTARY

Invited Lectures and Seminars

Goldsmith, BE 2012, "A Democratic Peace in Asia?", invited talk, 3 December 2012, University of Auckland, New Zealand.

Goldsmith, BE 2012, "Domestic Political Institutions and International Conflict Behaviour in Asia", lecture for Aotearoa-NZ Peace and Conflict Studies Trust, The National Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies, 29 November 2012, University of Otago, New Zealand.

Goldsmith, BE 2012, "Why No Escalation?: Developmental States, Trade Flows, and the Absence of War in East Asia since 1979", paper presented at 2nd Annual Conference of the East Asian Peace Program, 26-27 October 2012, Seoul, South Korea.

Goldsmith, BE & Horiuchi, Y 2010, "Does Foreign Public Opinion Matter for U.S. Foreign Policy?" invited talk at the Center for Public Diplomacy, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, 28 January 2010.

Goldsmith, BE 2009, "In Search of Soft Power," invited talk at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Institute of World Economics and Politics (based on research with Yusaku Horiuchi), Beijing, 29 October 2009.

Goldsmith, BE & Horiuchi, Y 2009, "In Search of Soft Power: Does Foreign Public Opinion Matter for U.S. Foreign Policy?" invited talk at the United States Study Centre, University of Sydney, 11 August 2009.

Goldsmith, BE 2009, "Asia-Pacific Perceptions of U.S. Foreign Policy and International Relations," invited talk at United States Study Centre event for U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Intern Program, 24 April 2009.

Goldsmith, BE 2009, "International Trade and War: Insights from bargaining models of conflict," presented at the colloquium series of the Department of Government and International Relations, University of Sydney, 26 March 2009.

Goldsmith, BE 2008, "International Trade, Dependence, Conflict, and War: What you count counts," invited talk at the Centre for Governance and Public Policy, Griffith University, Brisbane, 10 October 2008.

Goldsmith, BE & Horiuchi, Y 2008, "US Public Diplomacy and International Public Opinion," invited talk at the United States Study Centre, University of Sydney, 20 June 2008.

Goldsmith, BE 2007, "International Trade and Deadly Conflict: Some new analysis," invited talk for the Seminar Series, Department of Economics, University of Western Sydney, 15 April 2008.

Goldsmith, BE & Horiuchi Y 2007, "Spinning the Globe? U.S. Public Diplomacy and Foreign Public Opinion," invited talk, Conference on Comparative Public Diplomacy: Australia, Japan, and the Asia Pacific, Old Parliament House, Canberra, 6 March 2007.

Goldsmith, BE 2006, "A Liberal Peace in Asia?" Invited talk at the Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University, 31 August 2006.

Goldsmith, BE 2006, "Naïve Spatial Modeling of Global War Regions," School of Economics, Politics, and Tourism Research Seminar, University of Newcastle, Australia, February 2006.

Goldsmith, BE & Chalup SK, Quinlan MJ 2005, "Regime Type and International Conflict: Towards a general theory", School of Policy Research Seminar, University of Newcastle, Australia, October 2005.