Countries Facing Multiple Rivals

This project examines how conflictual or cooperative policies toward rival countries affect domestic political approval when a state faces multiple rivals at once. Using Japan as a case study, I designed an online survey experiment (IRB approved, n=1,200) combined with time-series analysis to test how rivals’ threat levels and salience shape public support for leaders’ foreign policy choices.

This project’s paper, “Multiple Rivals and Leadership Approval: Evidence from Japan,” is published in Foreign Policy Analysis (2026).