Scott Bennett

Scott Bennett is a Distinguished Professor of Political Science and Senior Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Studies at the College of the Liberal Arts, Pennsylvania State University. He also serves as Associate Director of the Correlates of War project. His research focuses on international conflict, war termination, and insurgency dynamics, utilizing statistical and agent-based simulation models. Bennett developed the EUGene software program, a widely used tool for analyzing international conflict data, particularly in expected utility models of war.

He has held leadership roles, including Department Head of Political Science and co-chair of Penn State’s Research Computing and CyberInfrastructure governance. His teaching includes courses on international relations, conflict resolution, and international conflict analysis. Bennett’s work emphasizes computational methods and interdisciplinary collaboration, with contributions to conflict simulation and policy-relevant research.

His research trends span computational modeling of insurgency evolution, strategic interactions in conflicts, and historical analysis of war duration. Recent work explores agent-based simulations of insurgent development, merging theoretical insights with quantitative methods. Bennett’s publications reflect a blend of theoretical advancements and applied data analysis, often addressing questions of conflict escalation and resolution mechanisms.

He has advised multiple collaborative research projects, including simulations of insurgency dynamics and alliance formations. His involvement with the Correlates of War project underscores his commitment to large-scale data collection and analysis in political science. Bennett’s contributions to software tools like EUGene highlight his role in advancing methodological rigor in the field.

Labs/Teams: Active in the Correlates of War project and the Penn State Research Computing initiative, Bennett collaborates with interdisciplinary teams to address complex socio-political challenges through computational and quantitative approaches.