“Politics” is an elusive phenomenon, with popular perception focusing on the importance of factors that do not seem subject to scientific inquiry; perhaps this is why National Science Foundation funding of the discipline has been under attack in Congress. However, even the founding figures of the United States viewed politics as if they were governed by logical processes. This panel focuses on emerging approaches within the discipline, with a focus on methods and ideas that have crossed over from other sciences, from molecular (genetic) analyses to international institutional determinants of political outcomes. The modern science of politics has revealed the substantial structure of political behavior and how institutions are shaped by and shape political behavior. The methods presented include field experimental work on political behavior, game theoretic approaches to politics, genetic foundations for political behavior, and network science–based approaches to political science.