Quantifying the Qualitative: Information Theory for Comparative Case Analysis

KEY FEATURES: Wide interdisciplinary applicability with step-by-step examples drawn from a number of sciences and professional fields, including defense, medicine, education, and ecology, demonstrate the powerful application of information metrics to comparative case studies. Presentation of techniques that can be used broadly allows readers to apply what they learn in settings including business, finance, health care, environmental policy, security, and other settings where consequential decisions are made under conditions of uncertainty and complexity. Clear and accessible prose illustrated by concrete and carefully explained examples makes the methods easy to understand and immediately applicable. A concise review of the exciting intellectual foundations of information theory motivates student interest by linking research with critical real-world problems, from World War II cryptography to Cold War nuclear deterrence to solving modern cyber-security and strategic challenges. Appendices available both in the book and online provide a walkthrough of Excel or Google sheets for automating simple calculations, along with sample Excel sheets (Appendix A) and an implementation of the methods in the open source language, R (Appendix B).