European Strategies in the Shadow of Sino-American Competition: A Text-as-Data Approach - Conference Paper, United States Military Academy, West Point, 7 February 2024

20 Pages Posted: 15 Apr 2024

See all articles by Jordan Becker

Jordan Becker

United States Military Academy, Department of Social Science; Free University of Brussels (VUB)-Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Institute for European Studies, Students; Chaire ECODEF - IHEDN; Institut de Recherche Stratégique de l’Ecole Militaire (IRSEM - Institute for Strategic Research)

Haemin Jee

Stanford University

Andreea Budeanu

Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB)

Maxwell Love

Independent

Seth Benson

Independent

Date Written: March 13, 2024

Abstract

As Sino-American competition becomes a key factor in structuring 21st century international relations, researchers and policymakers are interested in how third states align in relation to China and the US. So far, research on this topic has been qualitative – scholars have speculated as to the alignment of various actors vis-à-vis China and the United States, but no analysis has systematically arranged and compared a group of states or offered a consistent set of measurements for alignment. This limitation impedes replicability and generalizability of analyses. We introduce a dataset that uses text as data to systematize discursive alignment of up to 34 European states for as many as 50 years, using two different automated content analysis techniques. In more recent years (since 2014), we focus on alignment specifically regarding China’s “Belt and Road Initiative.” We discuss the main features of this data in the paper, and the replication files will enable other scholars to build on our work in the future. In addition to automating the extraction of quantitative sentiments from key documents, we make our library of documents available for other researchers to analyze along other dimensions of interest to them. We illustrate the utility of the dataset by describing differences across countries and over time. By focusing on European states, we shed light on Europe’s relationship with both China and the United States, as well as the concept of European strategic autonomy.

Keywords: Text as Data; Computational Social Science; Strategy; NATO; European Union

JEL Classification: F53

Suggested Citation

Becker, Jordan and Jee, Haemin and Budeanu, Andreea and Love, Maxwell and Benson, Seth, European Strategies in the Shadow of Sino-American Competition: A Text-as-Data Approach - Conference Paper, United States Military Academy, West Point, 7 February 2024 (March 13, 2024). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4758032 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4758032

Jordan Becker (Contact Author)

United States Military Academy, Department of Social Science ( email )

600 Thayer Rd
West Point, NY 10996
United States

Free University of Brussels (VUB)-Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Institute for European Studies, Students ( email )

Ixelles
Belgium

Chaire ECODEF - IHEDN ( email )

Institut de Recherche Stratégique de l’Ecole Militaire (IRSEM - Institute for Strategic Research) ( email )

École Militaire - case 38
1, place Joffre
Paris SP 07, 75007
France

Haemin Jee

Stanford University ( email )

Stanford, CA 94305
United States

Andreea Budeanu

Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) ( email )

Brussels
Belgium

Maxwell Love

Independent ( email )

Seth Benson

Independent

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