Relational Strategic Alignments of Non-Binding IGOs: The Case of APEC

Jeffery Shih-Chieh Wang

Under Review Job Market Paper

This paper shows that APEC’s effectiveness does not stem from enforcement or formal authority, but from relational, network-driven strategic alignments. Using temporal ERGMs on project co-sponsorship networks, I find that cooperation consistently emerges through friend-of-friend clustering and strategic bandwagoning around influential states. These relational pathways vary across issue domains: high-politics areas exhibit tighter closure shaped by capability and status, while low-politics sectors are more inclusive. Together, the results show that nonbinding IGOs endure because they enable flexible, relational forms of cooperation rather than relying on rules or hierarchy.

[Slides]

Legal Institutions and Human Trafficking in a Shifting Climate

Ted Hsuan Yun Chen, Jeffery Shih-Chieh Wang, Ore Koren

Revise and Resubmit International Studies Quarterly

While researchers have shown how legal institutions and natural shocks impact human trafficking in origin and destination countries, little attention is given to the intermediary countries through which individuals are trafficked. We develop and test a two-part cost-based explanation of how anti-trafficking laws and natural shocks impact trafficking networks through intermediary countries. Using inferential network analysis of human trafficking networks mined from the U.S. State Department’s Trafficking in Persons Report, we show that anti-trafficking law diffusion induces traffickers to diversify their trafficking routes, and that natural shocks confound these legal institutions by pressuring traffickers to focus their resources on mitigating climate impacts.

[Preprint]

Technical Cooperation or Hub-and-Spoke? Examining the Strategic Alignment Structure of the ISO Cooperation Network

Jiun-Da Lin, Jeffery Shih-Chieh Wang

Research in Progress

Although the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is widely seen as a technical forum, we show that its cooperation patterns reflect underlying geopolitical dynamics. Major-power competition shapes participation across ISO Technical Committees, producing uneven alignment and distinct collaboration clusters. A core group—China, Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Japan, the United States, and Russia—drives much of ISO activity. Yet China and the United States rarely lead together, instead heading separate coalitions, revealing the strategic nature of influence in global standard-setting.

[Slides]

Strategic Participation in APEC: A Mechanism-Focused, Process-Tracing Case Study

Jeffery Shih-Chieh Wang

Research in Progress

This mechanism-oriented, process-tracing case study examines how APEC member economies strategically engage with and influence policy processes through network interactions. By integrating qualitative process evidence with quantitative network measures, the study aims to reveal the underlying logic of informal cooperation and participation effectiveness.

Policies Diffuse across IGOs: A Multilayer Networks Anlaysis

Jeffery Shih-Chieh Wang

Research in Progress

This project examines how policy practices diffuse across international organizations such as APEC, the WTO, and UNGA through multilayer network structures. Treating IGOs as interconnected rather than isolated, it traces cross-institutional policy flows created by overlapping memberships, shared expertise, and repeated interactions. The project identifies mechanisms through which states and institutions leverage participation in one forum to influence others, highlighting how informal venues facilitate policy experimentation that later travels across regimes. The findings illuminate how networked interactions shape regional and global governance beyond formal institutional boundaries.

Data Collection Project: Relational Datasets for Non-binding IGOs

Jeffery Shih-Chieh Wang

Research in Progress

This data collection project aims to collect high-quality network dataset of non-binding intergovernmental organizations to facilitate systematic empirical analysis of institutional linkages. The data infrastructure will be progressively expanded to other types of IGOs, enabling comparative studies of inter-institutional relations and networked governance.