Call for Papers  

Mapping Behaviour of States in International Relations and  International Law 

Event: Social Simulation Conference 2022  

September 12-16, in Milan and online  

Session: Mapping Behaviour of States  

Organizers: Veronika Fikfak, Katharina Luckner  

Submission: https://ssc2022.behavelab.org  

This special track at the Social Simulation Conference 2022 brings together papers that seek  to simulate behaviour of states in international relations and international law. We are  specifically interested in two types of state behaviour:  

1. Behaviour of states in interaction with other states. ABM has for example been used  to map out peacekeeping operations, wars, norm diffusion, and other. We are  particularly interested in studies that explore how states adapt, learn, or are  influenced by the behaviour of other states.  

2. Behaviour of states as a result of conduct of agents within the state. In this second  example, we wish to explicitly focus on papers that break down the so-called black box  of the state. Instead of adopting the view that a state is considered a unitary actor, we  enquire into how behaviors of states depend on the actions of heterogeneous actors  at different levels – from government officials, state organs (courts, legislators), NGOs,  civil society, etc. We are particularly interested in studies that explore the interaction,  cooperation and role of these internal actors on the behaviour of the state.  

Since conventional methods are often incapable of mapping out highly complex processes of  state behavior, many questions relating to state behaviour remain under-examined. Our main  aim in the Special Track is to explore the utility of simulation methods to approach such  questions. 

The behavior of states and the breakdown of the infamous black box of the state connects  disciplines like international law, international relations, political science, political psychology,  and sociology. We invite researchers from these and related disciplines to submit their work  (in progress) on the topic of “state behaviour” using simulation methods, especially agent 

based modeling. Topics may include but are not limited to: 

 Norm diffusion among state actors  

 The role of civil society actors in international law  

 States within international organizations  

 The function of state organs within the state  

Participants of the special track should be interested in not only presenting their own work  but also contributing to a larger discussion on the next steps in using social simulation  methods to examine state behavior and breaking down the black box of the state. We aim to  put together a short discussion paper to summarize the session and especially the joint  outlook in RofASSS. The hybrid nature of the session and the overall conference extends the  opportunity of participation to early career researchers and those around the world who  might be working with unconventional methods in their field and would otherwise find it  difficult to come together and formulate joint ideas. 

Extended abstracts or full papers should be submitted according to conference guidelines via  the conference’s submission system. Questions may be directed at veronika.fikfak@jur.ku.dk  and katharina.luckner@uni-hamburg.de.