Why is conducting research a plus for undergraduate students?

Marina Henke earned her Master’s degree at Sciences Po and her PhD at Princeton University and is now an assistant professor at Northwestern University. She is spending the first few months of 2016 as a visiting professor at Sciences Po while she finishes her book Allies for Sale, and has seized the opportunity to set up a research assistant programme for Sciences Po students who choose to spend their third undergraduate year at Northwestern in 2017. Interview.

• Can you tell us about the research assistant programme that Sciences Po and Northwestern will soon be offering third year students?

The programme will allow Sciences Po students going to Northwestern University for their third undergraduate year to work as research assistants at Northwestern. They will take courses for two quarters, i.e., six months, and work as research assistants for one quarter, or about three months.
If all goes according to plan, the research assistant programme will be open to students leaving for Northwestern in 2017, so the selection process will begin at the start of the 2016 academic year. 

• What research topic will the assistants be working on?

They will mainly work on the subject of military interventions, looking into questions such as: why do we resort to military interventions? Who are the political actors that drive these military interventions, and who are those that oppose them? How are coalitions built? What motivates the countries that decide to participate?
The research assistants will also work on the repercussions of these interventions for the target countries. What are the economic, political and social impacts on these countries? In practice, the students will collect and analyse data, try to identify the main trends on the subject, and conduct statistical studies.

• It is common in the US for students to engage in research in the early stages of their university studies, but less so in Europe. Why is conducting research a plus for undergraduate students?

It is wonderful to have the opportunity to do research while at the Bachelor's level, to be able to get involved and participate in the creation of knowledge. Why should you have to wait for your Master's to develop a research project and learn how to collect and analyse data? Even for students who do not intend to pursue a research career, a research experience at the undergraduate level is extremely useful.
For instance, in order to design effective public policies, you need to understand social science research findings. The choice of methods in political science research is crucial, and you have to know these methods to understand the results. This can only really be learned by participating in research projects. 

• At what point did you decide that research was for you?

Before I started my Master's at Sciences Po, I interned with a German member of the European Parliament, and I have to say I was a real fan of hers! She was very young, much in demand and received a lot of attention, including from the media. But pretty soon I realised she didn't really have opinions of her own, that she was struggling to find and express her point of view. That was when I thought to myself that it would be unwise to go into politics too early, and decided I would do a PhD – which I went on to do at Princeton.

• You've come to Sciences Po for three months to finish the book you are writing and intend to publish soon. What is the book about?

My book is called Allies for Sale. It is a study of military coalitions since the Korean War in 1950. It is often thought that the countries serving in a coalition share the same interests, which are what lead them to unite against a threat.
 
In fact, starting with the Korean War, we have seen the development of a reimbursement mechanism. There is now a real “market” for military contributions. Often the compensation payment is a decisive factor for countries that join military coalitions. For example, Poland earned two billion dollars for sending about 2,000 soldiers to Iraq between 2003 and 2006!
 
The first part of my book describes these cash payments as well as compensations of a more political nature. In the second part of the book, I focus on how this “market” operates. For instance, I explore how countries like the United States and France choose their “allies” and how the type of payment is determined. The last part deals with the consequences of recruiting coalition partners in this way. If we look at the situation since 1950, there have been very few truly successful cases of military intervention. Peace building is always very complicated, and my book suggests that it is even more difficult to achieve if the countries involved in the interventions have no real motivation to secure that peace.
 
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