Teaching Data Science for International Affairs

The ESIA DLI and DAPP Program

Emmanuel Teitelbaum

Laila Sorurbakhsh

What is Data Science?

• Multidisciplinary field focused on extracting insights from data and communicating results
• Common techniques
  • data mining
  • machine learning
  • data visualization
  • statistical analysis
• Aim is to uncover patterns that yield informed, data-driven decisions
• Incorporates traditional social science, but focuses more on predictive analysis
• Common languages include Python, R and SQL

Motivation for Program

• International Affairs is changing!
• Data is everywhere and it is changing the way government works
• Train better consumers of data and research
• Train “bridge builders” between traditional analysts and data scientists

Relevance for International Affairs

Officials rely heavily on their own judgment to draw conclusions from the flood of available information: intelligence analysis, reports from the field, the media, and their own personal experiences at the helm of powerful government bureaucracies…

Foreign policy analysis must be greater than the sum of its parts, not less. The process should seek to synthesize knowledge and expertise from across offices, rather than relying on the fallible judgment of the highest ranking official.

– FP21, “Less Art, More Science”

Data Informed Dipomacy

Data is a critical instrument of diplomacy. When our workforce has data at their fingertips they are better prepared to engage diplomatically, manage effectively, and lead globally.

Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, 2022¹

1. https://www.state.gov/data/

State Department Goals

• Cultivate a Data Culture
• Accelerate Decisions through Analytics
• Establish Mission-Driven Data Management
• Enhance Enterprise Data Governance

Open Goverment Data Act (2018)

• Requires government data assets to be published as machine-readable data in open formats
• Requires Chief Data Officers (CDOs) to be appointed at federal agencies
• Requires CDOs to develop and maintain comprehensive data inventories
• Has led to a proliferation of data science roles in the federal government

https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/IF/IF12299

Open Source Intelligence

• More than 90% of the analysis in the intelligence community is based on open source information
• Government agencies use a lot of the same datasets that social scientists use in their research
• Yet the OSINT community has only begun to scratch the surface of what is possible with data science

MLP’s digital tools provide fine-grained data tracking and forecasting major political events across nearly 60 countries by continuously scraping and process tens of millions of articles published by more than 300 local, regional, and international news sources in more than 30 languages. This infrastructure provides up-to-date data on recent and historical trends in civic space and foreign influence and builds forecasting models that learn from historical patterns to predict how conditions are likely to change in the near future.

Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning

• Another important use of data in international affairs is monitoring, evaluation and learning (MEL)
• MEL is a process that helps organizations track and assess the performance of their programs
• MEL is an important feature of operations at USAID, the World Bank and other agencies
• A major component of MEL is the use of randomized control trials (RCTs) and other designs, which we teach about in our courses

Specific Roles in IA

• Data analyst in a government agency
• International development analyst
  • Aid allocation
  • M&E
• Political analyst
  • Campaigns and elections
  • Public opinion
  • Political risk

Note

State and other agencies are specifically looking for people with PPIA backgrounds to fill these roles.

For “traditional” analysts…

• Data science can still help
• It can help bridge the gap between analysts and data scientists
• Analysts can leverage data science skills to do their job better, more efficiently
• Can train them to produce data-rich websites, slides, reports, etc.

What We Accomplished

Data Literacy Initiative:

• Restructured the Bachelor of Science curriculum to include more data science courses
• Revamped the Graduate core IAFF 6501 Quant Methods course to incorporate a modern R workflow
• Added 11 new data-centric skills courses to the graduate curriculum
• Hosted guest speakers from USAID and Dept of State and other departments/agencies

Data Analytics for Policy Professionals:

• Hosted a roundtable with members of the broader data community
• Offered 12 new courses
• Negotiated a discounted tuition rate, plus extra discount for WIIS members
• Welcomed our first cohort of students
• Issued badges to each student for each successfully completed course
  
• Created a certificate for the full program
• Partnered with Accredible to certify our badges

The DAPP Program

• Executive ed. program designed for policy professionals
• Launching this fall with two courses, more in spring
• Will facilitate training in a range of skills and tools
• Emphasis on data-driven decision-making and communication

DAPP Mission

• To bridge data science with international affairs and public policy
• To upskill domestic and foreign policy practitioners from data literacy to proficiency, fluency, and mastery to achieve policy excellence
• To revolutionize policy through evidence-based approaches that combine content expertise with analytic skills

Our Audience

• Anyone who wants to enhance their analytic skills
  • From zero coding experience to expert coders
• Subject matter experts who want to learn different analytical approaches
• Data scientists who want to upskill or learn how to combine their coding skills with social scientific analysis
• Members of the policy community primarily, but diverse professional backgrounds welcome
• Must have an undergraduate degree

Courses

• Research and Data 101
• Expert Policy Decision Making Using Data
• Visualizing and Modeling International Politics
• Creating Data Rich Reports
• Monitoring and Evaluation for PPIA

• Storytelling with Your Org’s Data
• Ethics, AI and Machine Learning
• Forecasting with Time Series
• Survey and Experimental Design for PPIA
• Communicating Data with Web Apps
• Mapping Data: GIS for Presentations

Course Structure

• Based on our professional skills courses
  • 1.5 credits
  • 16-24 contact hours, 55 workload hours (total)
• Weekend workshops with asynchronous work
  • Example: Friday evening, all day Saturday, Sunday morning
• Courses feature a guest speaker and networking event

Instructors

• GWU full-time and part-time faculty
• Qualified, experienced SMEs
• Competitive compensation with incentives for high quality instruction
  • course evaluations
  • local and national recognition
  • other metrics of course quality

Credential Programming

• Students can transfer up to 9 credits for an ESIA Master’s degree or up to 6 credits for a graduate certificate
• ESIA now offers stand-alone 6-credit credentials
• Credentials can be stackable (i.e. “Data Analysis for International Affairs” + “Cybersecurity”)
• Badges earned for courses taken

DAPP Badge Example

DAPP Badge

DAPP Curriculum

Literacy:

• Research and Data 101
• Expert Policy Decision Making Using Data
• Creating Data Rich Reports

Proficiency:

• Visualizing and Modeling International Politics
• Storytelling with Your Org’s Data
• Monitoring and Evaluation for PPIA

Fluency:

• Survey and Experimental Design for PPIA
• Mapping Data: GIS for Presentations

Mastery:

• Ethics, AI and Machine Learning
• Forecasting with Time Series
• Communicating Data with Web Apps

Challenges and Opportunities

• Recruitment and retention
  • Untapped demand
  • Competition with other programs
  • Recognition of DS training at an IA school
• Resources
  • Marketing
  • Staffing

Challenges and Opportunities

• Bureaucratic hurdles
  • Credentials approval (GW)
  • Unused development funds (State)
• Pedagogical challenges
  • Teaching data science to non-technical students
  • Required versus skills courses

Thank You!

Thank you for your time!

@laila-sorurbakhsh-aa021333

@emmanuel-teitelbaum