Interdisciplinarity

A major theme in my scholarly work has been interdisciplinarity.

James Rosenau, in his essay “Thinking Theory Thoroughly” (1980) noted 10 points, one of which was: To think theoretically one must be predisposed to ask about every event, every situation, or every observed phenomenon, "Of what is this an instance?" In so doing we often find ourselves falling back on the broad concepts from the other social sciences. Indeed, when looking back at my own graduate training in international relations (IR), the most imposing figures in the literature all worked across disciplines. In a classic article, J. David Singer (1961) examined the "The Relevance of the Behavioral Sciences to the Study of International Relations." He argued that we could benefit from borrowing the methods, findings, and concepts of the other behavioral sciences, with especially concepts vital to “Of what is this an instance?”

 “Multidisciplinarity” may be seen as an activity that draws on knowledge from different disciplines but stays within their boundaries. On the other hand, “interdisciplinarity” can be seen as analyzing and synthesizing the connections between disciplines into a coordinated and coherent whole. I have tried, with my career-long focus on synthesis and context, to turn multidisciplinarity into a true interdisciplinarity. The best example of this is the “opportunity and willingness” framework I later developed.

Major Interdisciplinary Activities[i]

ECONOMICS

·         Visiting Researcher, Centre for Defence Studies, University of Aberdeen, Scotland, July-August 1990

·         Visiting Lecturer, Centre for Defence Studies, University of Aberdeen, Scotland, July 1985

·         “A Collective Goods Analysis of the Warsaw Pact After Czechoslovakia,” INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION, 28, 1974, pp.521-532. Reprinted in Keith Hartley and Todd Sandler, eds., The Economics of Defense, vol. 1 (Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar, 2001), pp.305-316.

·         January 1979, “Collective Goods Theory, the Economics of Alliance and Burden Sharing” (two lectures), Centre for Defence Studies, University of Aberdeen, Scotland

·         May 1979, “Burden Sharing in Voluntary Alliance,” lecture in the Program: “The Economics of Defense,” Her Majesty’s Forces Residential Course, Middleton Hall, Gorebridge, Scotland

·         July 1990, “How to Think About International Relations: Keeping Up with Change in Europe,” Centre for Defence Studies, University of Aberdeen, Scotland

GEOGRAPHY

·         National Science Foundation Research Grant, “The Analysis of Geopolitics: Reconceptualizing International Borders Through the Application of GIS (Geographic Information Systems),” March 1998- December 2000; $84,589 funded by the Political Science and Geography Programs

·         University of South Carolina, Research and Productive Scholarship Grant, "The Analysis of Geopolitics: Reconceptualizing International Borders Through the Application of GIS (Geographic Information Systems)," Summer/Fall 1996

·         Member of the National Advisory Board for the NSF supported Integrative Graduate Education and Research Training (IGERT) grant to the State University of New York at Buffalo for a multidisciplinary doctoral program in Geographic Information Science (1999-2003)

·         ON GEOPOLITICS: SPACE, PLACE, AND INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS (Boulder, CO: Paradigm Publishers, 2013)

·         “Alliance and Geopolitics,” Political Geography Quarterly, 9, 1990, pp.232-248 (Harvey Starr & Randolph Siverson)

·         “Using Geographic Information Systems to Revisit Enduring Rivalries: The Case of Israel,” Geopolitics, 5,1, 2001, pp.37-56

·         “Opportunity, Willingness and Geographic Information Systems: Reconceptualizing Borders in International Relations, Political Geography 21, 2002, pp.243-261

·         “Civil War: Spatiality, Contagion, and Diffusion,” paper presented at the conference, “The Spatial and Network Analysis of Conflict, (Program in Arms Control, Disarmament and International Security), Department of Geography, University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana, September 25-27, 2008 (Harvey Starr, David Darmofal & Zaryab Iqbal)

·         October 2014, “Geography and International Conflict: Space, Distance, and Ways to Study Them,” presented at the Workshop, “The Spatial Turn in Political Science in Political Science,” sponsored by the Initiative in Spatial Structures in the Social Sciences, Brown University

·         “Geopolitics and War: The Study of the Diffusion of International Conflict,” paper delivered at the Association of American Geographers Annual Meeting, April 1985, Detroit (invited as “Distinguished Visitors” of the Mathematical Models and Quantitative Methods Specialty Group), (Harvey Starr & Benjamin Most)

·  “The Power of Place and the Future of Spatial Analysis in the Study of Conflict,” CONFLICT MANAGEMENT AND PEACE SCIENCE, 20, 1, 2003, pp.1-20 [published version of the Presidential Address presented at the 35th North American Meeting of the Peace Science Society, October 2001, Atlanta.]

·         “On Geopolitics: Spaces and Places,” INTERNATIONAL STUDIES QUARTERLY, 57, 3, 2013, pp.433-39 [published version of the Presidential Address, International Studies Association   Annual Meeting, April 2013, San Francisco.

History

·         Discussant on the Panel, “U.S. Presidents and Their Foreign Policy Advisers,” American Historical Association, Cincinnati, December 1988

 International Business

·         “How to Manage Interdependence? The State in a Multi-Centric/Transnational World,” discussant paper prepared for the session on “Political Perspectives and International Business,” at the conference on Perspectives on International Business: Theory, Research & Institutional Arrangements, School of Business, University of South Carolina

·         “How to Manage Interdependence? The State in a Multi-Centric/Transnational World,” in Brian Toyne and Douglas Nigh, eds., International Business: An Emerging Vision (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1997), pp.274-281

 Linguistics

·         CO-PRINCIPAL, ConflictAnalytiX® LLC:  Dynamic Political and Ethnolinguistic Analysis of Global Conflict Systems and Particular Conflict Cases

Webpage: https://www.conflictanalytix.com/

·         “Is Language Key to Resolving the Israeli-Arab Conflict?” THE CONVERSATION, January 16, 2018, https://theconversation.com/is-language-key-to-resolving-the-israeli-arab-conflict- 89215), (Stanley Dubinsky and Harvey Starr

·         Invited Participant/Presenter and featured collaborator, Conference on “Language Endangerment and Political Instability” (NSF funded), Linguistics and Politics Program, University of North Texas, October 4-6, 2018.

·          “The Nature of Contemporary Global Conflict: Language Conflict Analysis in Its Larger Context’,” paper presented in the Workshop on “Global and Ethnolinguistic Conflict: An Internet Encyclopedia Project,” Annual Meeting of the Linguistic Society of America, January 2019, New York

·         "Political Science and Linguistics: Opportunities and Challenges for Studying Conflict," presentation at the Event Commemorating the United Nations Year of Indigenous Languages, “Voices in Dangerous Times: Language Endangerment & Political Instability,” The Smithsonian Center for Folklore and Cultural Heritage, Washington D.C., March 2019.

·          “The Language Conflict Project: Modern Conflicts and Their Connections to the Ancient World,” presented at the Herodotos Project 2020: Ethnohistory and Digital Science—A Virtual Conference, Herodotos Project at Ohio State University, November 2020 (with Stanley Dubinsky).

·         Conference Panel Organizer and Chair of the Panel, “The Politics of Language or the Language of Politics? Political Linguistics and Conflict,” Annual Meeting of the International Studies Association (Virtual), April 2021. [Through the Peace Science Society (International)]

·         “Crossing Boundaries: Political Science and Linguistics,” for the 2022 NY-St. Petersburg Institute of Linguistics, Cognition and Culture, Virtual NYI-#4, “Theoretical Linguistics & Cognitive Science,” January 13, 2022.

·          ”Weaponizing Language: Linguistic Vectors of Ethnic Oppression,” GLOBAL STUDIES QUARTERLY  2, 2, 2022 Special Issue on “Cruelty and Global Politics,” Stanley Dubinsky and Harvey  Starr.

·          “Conflicts over language stretch far beyond Russia and Ukraine," THE CONVERSATION, May 20, 2022, https://theconversation.com/conflicts-over-language-stretch-far-beyond-russia-and-ukraine-183280 ,Stanley Dubinsky, Anyssa Murphy, Harvey Starr, and Michael Gavin.

·         “The Language Conflict Project: Perspectives on 21st century Ethnolinguistic Conflict,” Stanley Dubinsky, Michael Gavin, Harvey Starr (with Anyssa Murphy, Dawson Petersen, Gareth Rees-White, Kaitlyn Smith, Vivian D’Souza, Jackson Ginn, Ashley Bickham; Presentation on the Panel, Language, Conflict and Identity, at the Online International Conference Communication, Conflict and Peace, organized by the Archbishop Desmond Tutu Centre for War and Peace Studies, Liverpool Hope University, June 27, 2022.

.   University of South Carolina Office of Research ASPIRE-II Grant (with Stan Dubinsky and Michael Gavin), "Language Difference and Language Policy: Measuring Key Factors of Global Conflict," 2022-23, $93,256.

·        Presentation/Paper, “Linguistics, Geography and Politics: Border and Language Dynamics in the Ukrainian-Russian Borderland,” Association for Borderlands Studies, 3rd ABS World Conference (“Borders, Edges, and Interfaces”), Ben Gurion University, Eilat, Feb. 2023, Stanley Dubinsky, Harvey Starr, and Michael Gavin.

•      “The Language Freedom Index: A Metric for Policy Evaluation," Language [Language and Public Policy section] 101, 2, 2025, Michael Gavin, Gareth Rees-White, Shana Scucchi, Harvey Starr, and Stanley Dubinsky.

•     “Heritage Languages in the Context of Language Conflict,” The Heritage Language Journal, 2, 2025, Stanley Dubinsky, Michael Gavin and Harvey Starr.

 Psychology

·         “Inherent Bad Faith Reconsidered: Dulles, Kennedy and Kissinger,” Political Psychology, 3, Fall-Winter 1981-82, pp.1-33 (Douglas Stuart & Harvey Starr)

·         “The Operational Code and Other Forms of Content Analysis: Analyses of Henry Kissinger,” paper presented at the International Society of Political Psychology Annual Meeting, Boston, 1980

National Science Foundation

Reviewed grant Proposals for the following programs:

           Political Science

             Decision Science

   Geography and Regional Science

   Geography and Spatial Sciences

   Economics

   Law and Social Sciences

   Methodology, Measurement and Statistics

 Manuscripts have been reviewed for the following journals:

--ANNALS OF THE ASSOCIATION OF AMERICAN GEOGRAPHERS

--GeoJOURNAL

--GEOPOLITICS

--INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF GEOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION SCIENCE

--POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY

--POLITICAL PSYCHOLOGY

 Papers/presentations at the annual meetings of:

             American Historical Association

             Association of American Geographers

             International Society of Political Psychology

             Linguistic Society of America

[i] This does not list all publications dealing with interdisciplinarity, conference papers, or other presentations, but only those related to the journals, publications, venues of non-Political Science disciplines.