Experimental Lab for International Security Studies (ELISS)

ELISS is a new interdisciplinary research team at the intersection of political science and cognitive and social psychology that uses experimental methods to examine attitudes to selected international security issues. Drawing on relevant concepts and theories from these fields, we explore individual-level factors such as moral values, emotional states and cognitive traits, as well as the effects of priming and issue-framing. Empirically, we focus on public and elite attitudes toward the use of force in international politics, particularly with respect to weapons of mass destruction (nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons), AI-powered autonomous weapon systems, cyber strikes, and operations in the context of contemporary “hybrid threats”. Our research also provides a unique comparative cross-national perspective by conducting survey experiments in Europe, the United States, and selected countries in Asia and the Middle East. The findings of this project contribute to the broader debates in the field of International Relations and Security Studies about the microfoundations of foreign policy attitudes.

Research areas

security studies, international relations, political science, political psychology

Project members

• doc. PhDr. Michal Smetana, Ph.D
• Mgr. Ing. Marek Vranka
• PhDr. Sarah Komasová
• Ph.D; prof. Michal Onderčo, Ph.D.
• doc. Ing. Petr Houdek, Ph.D.
• Mgr. Ondřej Rosendorf
• Bc. Barbora Srbová

Selected publications

• Smetana, M., Onderco, M. From Moscow With a Mushroom Cloud? Russian Public Attitudes to the Use of Nuclear Weapons in a Conflict With NATO. Journal of Conflict Resolution
• Smetana, M., Onderco, M.Elite-Public Gaps in Attitudes to Nuclear Weapons: New Evidence from a Survey of German Citizens and Parliamentarians. International Studies Quarterly
• Rosendorf, O., Smetana, M., Vranka, M. Autonomous Weapons and Ethical Judgments: Experimental Evidence on Attitudes Toward the Military Use of “Killer Robots.” Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology
• Rosendorf O., Smetana M., Vranka M. Disarming Arguments: Public Opinion and Nuclear Abolition, Survival, 63:6, 183-200
• Smetana M., Vranka M. How moral foundations shape public approval of nuclear, chemical, and conventional strikes: new evidence from experimental surveys. International Interactions. 47(2) 374-390

Contact

Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University
Doc. PhDr. Michal Smetana, Ph.D. – smetana@fsv.cuni.cz

More information

https://www.eliss-lab.eu/

We are open to collaboration with new PhD students