International relations
Research Topic
Language: English
This is a research topic created to provide authors with a place to attach new problem publications.
Research topics above this in the hierarchy
Research problems linked to this topic
- How are changes in technology impacting the tradability of different services, the cost of trade in services and the ways in which services are traded?
- How are emerging digital services and technologies likely to affect the future of exports and supply chains across sectors?
- How can comparative advantage inform future trade and investment interests across regions and sectors? What are the limits of comparative advantage here?
- To what extent does evidence support the case for selective export promotion policy?
- How can specific provisions in trade agreements be effectively evaluated in terms of benefits to developing countries?
- How can international governance, emerging technologies (including climate tech) and digital agreements be used to achieve Net Zero and support environmental sustainability?
- What are the risks to UK interests if the industry led, multi stakeholder nature of the global internet is weakened in favour of greater state- or multilateral control?
- Which technologies are going to be important for economic and national security over the next 10 years?
- How can DIT use ODA for response to COVID-19 crisis and recovery?
- What specific trade and investment policy interventions are most effective in creating inclusive growth for both UK and developing countries?
- Where are the opportunities for international collaboration to increase the UK’s role and influence over the development of next generation telecommunications technologies - including advanced 5G and beyond?
- How can the UK retain and expand its strategic advantage in relation to semiconductor IP, design, R&D and compound and advanced materials?
- A taxonomy of economic and national security risks with likelihood impact assessments to determine relative severity.
- What are the opportunities to influence global digital standards?
- How does the UK legal sector meet the needs of foreign markets through cross-border trade in services (including temporary services)?
- Analysis of the responses of and dynamics within and between multilateral institutions and the implications of these developments for global governance as a whole
- Analysis of the impacts of the pandemic on international cooperation and relationships between states
- What will be the long run economic pressure on international institutions and where or how should the UK engage to ensure most influence
- Does international regulatory cooperation help reduce regulatory barriers to trade in innovative products and services?
- How can geospatial analysis and mapping help monitor trade patterns during recovery and target business support?
- What challenges might developing economies face when engaging with the international economy that developed economies might not? How can the UK best support trade recovery in developing economies?
- How do non-UK businesses and publics perceive the UK as a trade and/or investment partner?
- How should the UK mitigate the risks associated with emerging technologies, while taking advantage of the opportunities?
- What does research say about digital sectors or countries that pose the greatest risk of disruption to international cooperation over the use and governance of digital technology?
- What factors drive fragmentation and consolidation, respectively, in internet architecture and the international digital space?
- How can the UK foster international influence in digital policy, and what should the priorities be for cooperation over such policy?
- What does evidence suggest about how the UK could prepare for future trends?
- What does research tell us about the impact of interventions that the Government has put in place to strengthen the UK's capabilities in digital and emerging technologies, and about possible future trajectories?
- Comparative studies on international strategic advantages now and in the future.
- What is the nature of international investment in science and tech related R&D?
- Identify the policy intervention options for mitigating barriers to UK capability, including analysis of how policy could stimulate or support (e.g. research and publications, start ups, investments, commercialisation). What can we learn from other countries’ approaches, or what are the ecosystem benefits we can emulate from the practice of leading international companies?
- What is the impact of data security measures on international data flows?
- How to increase bilateral and multilateral partnerships with other spacefaring nations, forging the best relationships to achieve our goals in space?
- How to make the UK a partner of choice in space activities?
- How best to draw on collaborative research and innovation, international opportunities, and global talent to be resilient and competitive?
- What evaluation methods are appropriate for comparing reputation and influence impacts across programmes?
- How do investments in R&I (e.g. infrastructure, partnerships) contribute to reputation and influence?
- What data and metrics exist which could be used to estimate the return on R&I activities?
- What does reputation and influence mean for international R&I?
- How can we best establish which UK research and technology organisations are undertaking work for overseas companies, and which have operations outside of the UK?
- What are the global trends developments in the variety and scale of export finance products and services?
- How can the pathways to decarbonisation of transport be evaluated against the UK’s international climate ambitions?
- What is the impact of increased trade and investment on poverty reduction in developing countries?
- What data and methods can improve estimation of intra-regional trade within the UK?
- To what extent do international trade expos help build the reputation of the UK and its regional strengths as a destination for international projects?
- We also need to look internationally: How does our domestic approach compare internationally? How does implementation differ between developing and developed countries?
- How can we value non-FTA agreements (including the Government Procurement Agreement and mutual recognition agreements), in terms of total impact?
- Is there a sustained change in the balance of power in multilateral institutions? If “yes” what would be the implications for the UK’s existing national security strategy?
- In the event of a trade shock, how can data requirements for taking rapid decisions be met using real time indicators (RTIs) and non-traditional sources of data? How can data science evaluate and improve the quality and reliability of RTIs?
- What measures limit international trade restrictions on exports (including healthcare supplies) and investment resulting from global shocks?
- How can we assess the longer-term structural changes to the global trading system following a shock, including the assessment of the long-term impacts of short-term responses to COVID-19?
- What are the risks to creative industries international activities from changes in the global political landscape?
- What activities and outcomes contribute to improving reputation and influence?
- International comparisons: How do UK capabilities compare to international leaders (such as the US, China, France, South Korea, Singapore, Israel)?How do these governments’ interventions and capabilities policies compare to the UK’s?
- Examine and explain the impact of the Cultural Protection Fund, in particular its contribution to UK cultural diplomacy, soft power and towards The United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals within the programme.
- Are some countries further ahead, and by what degree, in climate tech resilience than others?
- Analysis of how international efforts can most benefit UK citizens after the pandemic
- To what extent will the UK’s main trading partners adopt a more protectionist stance? How could this affect trade negotiations going forward
- Analysis of the role of soft power efforts, public diplomacy and international aid in geopolitical contest between larger powers
- How state and non-state actors are adjusting their approaches to geopolitical issues during the course of the pandemic
- Analysis of how UK citizens and regions’ expectations of UK government’s international efforts are evolving
- How will coronavirus impact on the uptake of international study? What are the longer term implications for the research ecosystem in the UK and internationally? What will be the impact on the UK’s reputation as a leading science nation
- What is the impact of coronavirus on the multilateral and international alignments on climate change consensus? What opportunities are afforded the UK in its efforts to tackle the global threat
- What will future international scientific collaboration look like in a post-coronavirus world? Will scientists collaborate in a different way
- How will coronavirus impact on international co-operation on emerging technologies
- What impact have technological and geopolitical changes had on global investment trends and has this altered investor sentiment?
- What is the relationship between easing and removing foreign investment restrictions and export performance bilaterally?
- What impact do regulatory barriers have on trade in services?
- Under what conditions have multilateral institutions had most effect, for example on the success of international sanctions, and what lessons can we learn?
- How do delays in obtaining finance affect international buyers’ confidence in UK exporters?
- How can we best evaluate the barriers to trade in services and their impact on trade flows?
- To what extent do barriers to goods trade affect services trade and vice versa?
- What is best practice in developing the international classifications underpinning trade measurement – including product codes for goods, classifications for services and their relationship to sectors?
- How can the Trade in Value Added (TiVA) dataset inform our understanding about regional or global supply chains, including re-manufactured goods?
- How can we effectively evaluate countries’ relative technology readiness levels (TRL), by technical area, sector and overall strategy? To what extent does the commercial, regulatory and legal environment impact on TRLs? To what extent can market access restrictions to some sectors have wider impacts on trade within other sectors?
- How can various data sources inform how we identify and target support to large businesses which are high value or volume UK exporters?
- How can we evaluate additionality of government support in trade facilitation?
- How can we isolate the impact of export finance on trade in specific goods and services?
- What further data sources could help us build a more complete picture of the exporter journey?
- How does export finance help in developing an integrated supply chain?
- What measurement approaches should be used to evaluate the impact of market access barriers on sustainable development?
- How important are imports from developing countries for UK supply chains and what role can they play in diversification of supply chains?
- What are the sub-regional implications of future trade agreements and trade policy more broadly
- How can we evaluate the performance of trade policy in delivering regional growth and international development?
- What are the wider impacts associated with trade remedy measures, beyond firms directly affected?
- How can the impact of cross-chapter provisions on dispute settlement mechanisms in trade agreements be effectively evaluated?
- What insights does the academic literature provide on the economics of trade remedies, and issues that have arisen in recent World Trade Organization (WTO) disputes, including subsidies and market distortions?
- To what extent does the use of voluntary standards facilitate or restrict trade? How does this vary by country and sector?
- What are the long-term impact of provisions that bind in existing market access and reduce uncertainty?
- How effective have existing trade agreements been in reducing the trade restrictiveness of non-tariff measures?
- How can the UK best uphold the global rules-based system to support trade recovery?
- How can society and government act to protect and enhance nature, thereby sustaining the ecosystem services (including mitigation and adaptation to climate change) it provides, under a changing climate?
- Where are the gaps in multilateral cooperation on global governance, for example in cyber security and natural resource security, and what are their policy implications?
- Analyse the elements of policy and regulation that could be brought in to better regulate men’s and women’s games, taking into account cultural contexts and case examples from other sports and internationally.
- How can we best measure and track media freedom in the UK context building upon existing international work including the RSF’s Media Freedom Index? What does a more detailed development and analysis reveal?
- How does culture drive soft power and what methodologies can be applied/developed to measure the generation of soft power through international cultural engagement?
- Analysis of the impact of coronavirus on key constituencies’ approach to global governance and to particular institutions or groups of them within the multilateral system
- How can we define worst case scenarios in a changing world in which international standards are contestable?
- How could the WTO dispute settlement process be improved to better serve all member states?
- What is the approach of global powers to multilateral institutions?
- What is international maritime best practice and precedent for wreck retrieval?
- Analysis of the extent to which sanctions inhibit humanitarian responses to pandemics and the impact of humanitarian exemptions on sanctions policy
- What are the opportunities to influence global digital standards?
- How should global digital technical standards be understood and used, and how can we understand their costs and benefits? How do we work with global companies on this from a UK perspective?
- What does evidence suggest about how the UK could prepare for future trends?
- Are international regulatory frameworks and technical standards currently helping or hindering UK innovators in achieving scale? How do key stakeholders rate our regulatory system compared to international competitors? How active / influential has the UK been in shaping international efforts to establish regulations and standards? Have UK industry and government built new capabilities / coalitions, effective in shaping global technical standards?
- What data and metrics exist which could measure reputation and influence benefits?
- How can restrictions on trade in services be effectively measured across sectors, given data limitations?
- How can we best characterise the attitudes and behaviours of UK exporters, to inform our understanding of the internationalisation process for SMEs?
- How do the public’s attitudes towards globalisation vary, and what drives these differences?
- How do the public view the trade-offs that trade agreements bring, in relation to consumer choice, prices and employment by sector? How do these perceptions vary by partner country?
- How are perceptions of international trade affected by the inclusion of sustainability and welfare provisions in trade agreements?
- Which statistical methods can help reconcile foreign investment and trade asymmetries between partner countries?
- Which countries excel at facilitating the commercialisation and export of new technologies and why?
- How does investment and export promotion engage with varied supply chains, given small and medium enterprise internationalisation?
- How can barriers to foreign investment (including business procedures) be most effectively identified and addressed?
- What is international best practice to define and measure trade in services? This may include digital trade, e-commerce and cross-border data flows.