Hi, I’m Shusuke Ioku, a Ph.D. candidate in Political Science at the University of Rochester. I broadly work on political economy, combining formal theory with micro-level data to study the strategic implications of algorithmic technology and AI, conflict, and the development of government. In recent work under review, I model how AI-powered influence operations degrade what online communities collectively know. Other projects examine why coercive diplomacy fails when threats are credible but assurances are not, how Sengoku warlords engineered kinship ties to build coalitions and absorb rivals, and how mass exit across competing rulers disciplined extraction in Tokugawa Japan.

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