Common knowledge, also called intersubjectivity, is a core theme in the study of international cooperation and diplomacy. Yet International Relations (IR) lacks a method to systematically measure the degree of common knowledge. Drawing from research in computational linguistics, psychology, and communication, we introduce latent semantic analysis (LSA) to measure common knowledge in specific communicative exchanges between actors. We argue that the extent to which speaking partners use words in the same way and get in synch linguistically can be used to measure the degree of common knowledge, and this can be measured by the LSA method. We outline several ways LSA can be valuable to IR scholars and provide an empirical illustration of using this method in the case of Bretton Woods negotiations. The LSA method promises to help IR scholars seize the research opportunities offered by the digital age and build a bridge between qualitative and quantitative methods.

中文翻译：

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测量共同知识：潜在语义分析、语言同步性和国际关系中的共同知识

共同知识，也称为主体间性，是国际合作与外交研究的核心主题。然而，国际关系 (IR) 缺乏一种系统地衡量常识程度的方法。借鉴计算语言学、心理学和交流方面的研究，我们引入了潜在语义分析 (LSA) 来衡量参与者之间特定交流交流中的共同知识。我们认为，说话的伙伴以相同的方式使用单词并在语言上保持同步的程度可以用来衡量共同知识的程度，而这可以通过 LSA 方法来衡量。我们概述了 LSA 对 IR 学者有价值的几种方式，并提供了在布雷顿森林谈判中使用这种方法的经验说明。