Emerson S. Niou, Professor

Contact Info:

Teaching (Spring 2025):

• POLSCI 229S.01, INSTITUTIONS & SELF GOVERNANC Synopsis

  Physics 205, MW 11:45 AM-01:00 PM

• POLSCI 333S.01, DEMOCRACY AND SOCIAL CHOICE Synopsis

  Bio Sci 113, MW 04:40 PM-05:55 PM

Office Hours:

by appointment only

Education:

Ph.D., University of Texas, Austin, 1987

BA, National Taiwan University, 1981

Specialties:

Security, Peace, & Conflict
Political Institutions
Methods

Research Interests: International Relations, Political Economy, and Chinese Politics

Current projects: nonseparable preferences in politics, strategic ambiguity, local self-governance, calculus of voting, security stability in the Taiwan Strait

EMERSON M.S. NIOU (Ph.D., U. of Texas at Austin, 1987) is Professor of Political Science at Duke University. He is the co-author of The Balance of Power, Cambridge University Press, 1989. His recent publications include: “A Theory of Economic Sanctions and Issue Linkage,” with Dean Lacy, Journal of Politics, 2004; “Term Limits as a Response to Incumbency Advantage,” with Kongpin Chen, Journal of Politics, May 2005; “External Threat and Collective Action,” with Guofu Tan, Economic Inquiry, 2005; “Economic Interdependence and Peace: A Game-Theoretic Analysis,” Journal of East Asian Studies, 2007; “Strategic Voting in Plurality Elections,” with Daniel Kselman, Political Analysis, 2010. His current projects include studies of institutions and governance in China, security balance in the Taiwan Strait, and theories of alliance formation.

Areas of Interest:

China
Taiwan

Curriculum Vitae

Recent Publications   (More Publications)

1. Niou, E; Zeigler, SM, Entente versus Alliance: When Should States Be Friends but Not Allies?, Defence and Peace Economics, vol. 35 no. 7 (January, 2024), pp. 792-808 [doi]  [abs].
2. Kselman, D; Niou, E; Wang, AHE, Measuring ‘closeness’ in 3-candidate elections: Methodology and an application to strategic voting, Electoral Studies, vol. 68 (December, 2020) [doi]  [abs].
3. Niou, EMS; Zeigler, SM, External threat, internal rivalry, and alliance formation, Journal of Politics, vol. 81 no. 2 (April, 2019), pp. 571-584 [doi]  [abs].
4. Lacy, D; Niou, EMS; Paolino, P; Rein, RA, Measuring Preferences for Divided Government: Some Americans Want Divided Government and Vote to Create It, Political Behavior, vol. 41 no. 1 (March, 2019), pp. 79-103, Springer Nature [doi]  [abs].
5. Hickey, DV; Niou, EMS, Taiwan in 2016: A new era?, Asian Survey, vol. 57 no. 1 (February, 2017), pp. 111-118, University of California Press [doi]  [abs].