Nazim Uras Demir

Nazim Uras Demir is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of California Irvine’s Department of Political Science. Uras’s dissertation explores the influence of contemporary asymmetrical trade interdependence on international conflict and cooperation. Today, intermediate goods, components that flow through value chains for the production of finished goods, comprise more than half of the global trade. Yet, the literature on trade interdependence predominantly focuses on finished goods flows. However, while finished goods interdependence describes a story of consumption, intermediate goods interdependence tells one of production. The past decade suggests that asymmetrical interdependence on intermediate goods incentivizes cooperation among some partners and exacerbates conflict among others. To address this puzzle, the dissertation introduces a typology of intermediate goods based on substitutability and centrality. The theory suggests that, where asymmetrical interdependence is present, substitutability of intermediate goods defines the influence of trade on conflict and cooperation. Moreover, the centrality of intermediate goods defines the magnitude of the influence. The multimethod research design of the project features a large-N analysis and case studies on the integrated circuit, electric battery, and photovoltaic device value chains that connect the US, Japan, South Korea, and China. Alongside IGCC, Uras is a Smith Richardson Foundation World Politics and Statecraft Fellow and a UC Irvine Division of Teaching Excellence and Innovation Pedagogical Fellow.

Proposal Title: National Power and the Structure of Global Supply Chain Trade