Undergraduate Research & Scholarships

Kayla Yee

Threat Perception in Foreign Policy Decision Making

This research project examines how threat perception influences policymakers’ coordinated responses to global dangers. While the broader project analyzes policy preferences across several national security contexts, my work this summer will focus specifically on climate change. In addition to conducting literature reviews, I will integrate my existing climate policy coding project with a dataset of United Nations General Debate speeches. By merging these text and policy datasets, I aim to estimate the relationship between the discussion of climate change as an existential threat and the subsequent enactment of mitigation policies across UN member states.

Message To Sponsor

Thank you for your generous donation! I am incredibly grateful for the opportunity to continue my research under Professor Landau-Wells' mentorship. This experience has allowed me to gain hands-on experience beyond the classroom while also helping me develop valuable skills that will support my academic and professional journey moving forward. It has been deeply rewarding to contribute to research I care so much about, and I feel fortunate for the opportunity to do so in my last summer at UC Berkeley. Thank you again for making this possible!