Data-Driven Empirical Modeling: The Advent of Globalization and Multilateral Treaties

Abstract

By statecraft one often means the skill and flair of running the state. Instead of uttering aphorisms to approach this subject, we attempt to create digitized statecraft since we know that we are not pundits. In order to hone skill and nurture flair in deciding whether or not to join a multilateral treaty, one must grasp what are keys in joining or not joining multilateral treaty. Multilateral treaties are a form of communication with messages and modes to allure sovereign states to join. Here we focus on communication modes rather than communication messages. In other words, we take a close look at sovereign states' physical action (i.e., promulgation and ratification) rather than their words. As Antoine de Saint Exupéry (2011) in his Le Petit Prince says, "One only sees clearly with the heart. What is essential is invisible to the eye." 2.1 Policy Domains and Subdomains of Multilateral Treaties For this book, the collection of United Nations multilateral treaties is the dataset of 600 treaties which are mainly the treaties deposited in the Secretary-General of the United Nations (roughly 500 treaties) and some others (more than 100 treaties) deposited in UN special agencies (the World Intellectual Property Organization and the International Labor Organization). For the treaties deposited in the Secretary-General of the United Nations, we have accessed the data of "UN Treaty Collection" at its website at https://treaties.un.org. The Treaty Section of the Office of Legal Affairs of the United Nations who makes every effort to provide the most up-to-date information of multilateral treaties deposited with the Secretary-General available to it in electronic format (United Nations 2020). These are the multilateral treaties that cover a broad range of subject matters such as human rights, peace and disarmament, protection of the environment, labor and health, trade, commerce, and communications, and intellectual property. These treaties are categorized in domains and corresponding subdomains based on their main target of solving a given issue of global governance. The burst of these new categories of policy domains has been caused by