Armed Conflict Dataset
1
CodebookHåvard Strand,
Lars Wilhelmsen& Nils Petter Gleditsch
International Peace Research Institute, Oslo (PRIO)
in collaboration with:Peter Wallensteen,
Margareta Sollenberg& Mikael Eriksson
Department of Peace and Conflict Research, Uppsala University
andHalvard Buhaug& Jan Ketil Rød
Department of Sociology and Political Science/Department of Geomatics,
Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)

Version 1.1, 9 September 2002

1

This codebook to the Armed conflict dataset 1946–2001 was written at PRIO in close collaboration
with researchers at the Department of Peace and Conflict Research at Uppsala University and the Departments of Sociology and Political Science and Geomatics at the Norwegian University of Scienceand Technology (NTNU). For a description of the division of labor in creating the database, see thefirst footnote in the published report on the data: Gleditsch, Wallensteen, Sollenberg, Eriksson &Strand (2002: 615). This footnote also lists the financial sources of support for the entire project andcredits for comments and advice received along the way.
This is Version 1.1 of the codebook. We discovered very early certain errors that demanded instantattention. See section 4.24. We anticipate that a further revision, Version 1.2, incorporating corrections
based on feedback from users, will be issued in a few months. For all comments and suggestions on the
data
and
the
codebook,
pleasecommunicate
both
to
and
to
jpr@prio.no
margareta.sollenberg@pcr.uu.se.
When using the data, please cite the published article and (when appropriate) this codebook. Always
include the Version number in analyses using the dataset.

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1 Introduction
This document describes the Armed Conflict Dataset, a joint project between the Department of Peace and Conflict Studies, Uppsala University and the International
Peace Research Institute, Oslo (PRIO). The dataset is presented in a recent article(Gleditsch, Wallensteen, Eriksson, Sollenberg & Strand 2002), and is available fordownloadfrom
http://www.prio.no/cwp/ArmedConflict/andfrom
http://www.pcr.uu.se.

2 Definition of conflict
The dataset was originally published in a Word document, with a flexible data structure, which corresponds to the definition presented below in Section 2.1. This document describes a fixed data structure, which is at times incompatible with the flexible
structure of the original list. We have been as loyal to the original document as possible, and we will try to clarify how each variable relates to the original dataset2.

2.1 Armed conflict
We follow the definitions used by the Uppsala University Conflict Data Project: An
armed conflict is a contested incompatibility that concerns government and/or territory where the use of armed force between two parties, of which at least one is thegovernment of a state, results in at least 25 battle-related deaths.
The separate elements of the definition are operationalized as follows:(1) Use of armed force: use of arms in order to promote the parties’ general positionin the conflict, resulting in deaths.
(1.1) Arms: any material means, e.g. manufactured weapons but also sticks,
stones, fire, water, etc.
(2) 25 deaths: A minimum of 25 battle-related deaths per year and per incompatibility.
(3) Party: A government of a state or any opposition organization or alliance of opposition organizations.
(3.1) Government: The party controlling the capital of the state.
(3.2) Opposition organization: Any non-governmental group of people having
announced a name for their group and using armed force.
(4) State: A state is(4.1) an internationally recognized sovereign government controlling a specified territory, or(4.2) an internationally unrecognized government controlling a specified territory whose sovereignty is not disputed by another internationally recognized sovereign government previously controlling the same territory.

2

The complete list of conflicts is available at:
http://www.prio.no/cwp/armedconflict/current/conflic_list_1946-2001.pdf. A second document
http://www.prio.no/cwp/armedconflict/current/unclear_cases_1946-2001.pdf lists uncertain cases
which might have been included (or upgraded) if more information had been avaliable.

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(5) Incompatibility concerning government and/or territory:
The incompatibility, as stated by the parties, must concern government and/or territory.
(5.1) Incompatibility: the stated generally incompatible positions.
(5.2) Incompatibility concerning government: Incompatibility concerning typeof political system, the replacement of the central government, or the change of its
composition.
(5.3) Incompatibility concerning territory: Incompatibility concerning thestatus of a territory, e.g. the change of the state in control of a certain territory (interstate conflict), secession, or autonomy (intrastate conflict).
The conflicts are grouped into five geographical regions:• Europe: Geographic definition, including the states in the Caucasus.
• Middle East: Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Syria, Turkey,
and the states of the Arabian Peninsula.
• Asia: Geographic definition, including Oceania, Australia, and New Zealand.
• Africa: Geographic definition, excluding states in the Middle East (see above).
• Americas: Geographic definition, including states in the Caribbean.
Location refers to the governmental party; opposition organizations include allorganizations recorded as being in armed conflict with the government.
Subsets of armed conflicts are defined as follows:• Minor Armed Conflict: At least 25 battle-related deaths per year and fewer
than 1,000 battle-related deaths during the course of the conflict.
• Intermediate Armed Conflict: At least 25 battle-related deaths per year and an
accumulated total of at least 1,000 deaths, but fewer than 1,000 per year.
• War: At least 1,000 battle-related deaths per year.
• Major Armed Conflict includes the two most severe levels of conflict, i.e. intermediate armed conflict and war.
In the case of an interstate armed conflict, both (or all) countries are given as alocation in the original conflict list, with a dash between the warring sides. In the caseof a colonial conflict, the territory at issue is listed as the location whereas the actors,
including the colonial power, are presented as opposition organizations. In the database, one country in an interstate conflict is given as location in the database, while
the other state actors are presented as opposition organizations. If several countries arelisted, the first country is the location.
Names of the opposition organizations are given in the local language, if available, and in English.

2.2 Sub-Conflicts
There is no time aspect to the definition of a conflict. A conflict is still the same conflict if the incompatibility remains the same and the opposition side does not change.
This is problematic in relation to defining start dates. To improve this, we introduce
the concept of sub-conflict. A conflict is divided into several sub-conflicts if it satisfies one or more of the following criteria:
1. Ten continuous years with less than 25 battle related deaths per year3

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2. A change in the conflict type from intrastate conflict to internationalised intrastate conflict or vice versa.
3. A complete change in the opposition side in a conflict.
For every sub-conflict we define a new start date. The individual sub-conflict has
the same conflict ID, but a different sub-conflict ID.

3 Definition of observations
The observation (or unit) in the database is a conflict, a sub-conflict, or a subset ofeither over a period of time where no element in the definition described in Section 2
is changed. Each conflict is likely to have several observations.
The calendar year is the basic unit of every observation. A period JuneSeptember, resulting in 30 casualties will be recorded as a year of conflict, while aperiod November-February with similar figures might not, if the casualties are spread
across the two calendar years and both fail to reach the threshold of 25 battle-related
deaths. This has a number of consequences that will be discussed later in the document. Start dates will very often be before the first observation in time, as the start ofa conflict might be in a year with less than 25 casualties. Small conflicts might not be
included. Certain observations might be based on a single event, such as the Omaghbombing in Northern Ireland in 1997, which exceeded the minimum threshold forarmed conflict.
Different observations have a different number of actors, both government andopposition groups. For most purposes, the database has to be converted into a data
structure more suitable for analysis, such as a monadic, dyadic, or duration structure.
The observation in this database differs somewhat from the observation used in
the previous updates published annually (most recently Wallensteen & Sollenberg,
2001), but is consistent with the latest article covering the whole period from 1946–
2001 (Gleditsch, Wallensteen, Eriksson, Sollenberg & Strand, 2002) in that the database does not rely on footnotes. Several fields have been added to the database, but
we have aimed to keep as much compatibility as possible to the earlier versions. We
have added two fields, Side A and Side B, for precise reference to the two groups ofcompeting actors. We have also added a number of variables that have not been reported earlier, such as start dates, geographical location and a Conflict ID.

4 Definition of variables
No
1

Variable
Primkey

Label
Primary key

2
3

ID
SubID

Conflict identifier
Sub-conflict identifier

4

Location

Country name(s)5Side_ACountry name(s)6Side_BCountry name(s) or Opposition actors

7

Incompatibility

Conflict incompatibility

4

Description
The unique identifier of all observations
The unique identifier of all conflicts
Identifying sub-conflicts within a defined conflict
The name(s) of the country/countries
whose government(s) have a primary claim to the object in dispute.
Identifying the country/countries ofside A in a conflict. Always the government side in civil wars
Identifying the names and/or country/countries of side B in a conflict. In
a civil conflict, this includes militaryopposition organizations.
A general coding of the conflict issue

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No
8

Variable
Territory

Label
Name of territory

Description
The name of the territory over which
the conflict is fought, provided thatthe incompatibility is territorial

9
10
11

Begin
End
Intensity

Start year of observation
End year of observation
Intensity level

12

Type

Conflict type

13

Startdate

Date of conflict initiation

14

Startprecision

Precision of Start_date

15

Startdate2

Date of conflict initiation

16

Startprecision2

Precision of Start_Date2

17

COW_A

COW numbers of Side A

18

COW_B

COW numbers of Side B

19

COW_location

COW numbers of location

20
21

Continent
Lat

Continent of location
Latitude of conflict centre

22

Lon

Longitude of conflict center

23

RadiusRadius of conflict area

24

VersionVersion Number

A two + one level assessment of thenumber of battle related casualties
per year in the conflict period covered by the observation, plus a special level indicating conflict history in
low-intensity conflicts
Four different types of conflict (interstate, extrastate, internal, internationalized internal)
The date, as precise as possible, of
the first violent action of the conflict
resulting in death
The level of precision for the initial
date
Similar to Start_date, but truncatedso that there are no dates earlier
than the first year of 25 battle-related
deathsThe level of precision for the truncated initial date
COW numbers of all countries inSide A, separated by semicolons
COW numbers of all countries inSide B, separated by semicolons
COW numbers of all location countries, separated by semicolons
First component of the geographic
coordinates of center of the conflict
Second component of the geographic coordinates of center of theconflict
Assuming that all conflict areas arecircles, the radius of the conflict area
The current version of the dataset.
See Section 4.24.

4.1 Primkey
The Primkey variable is the primary key in the dataset, and each observation has aunique primary key. This variable is useful for merging the dataset with other datasets. It is built up by three components. The first four digits are the conflict ID. The
fifth digit is the sub-conflict ID. The last four digits are the first year of the observation period. Key = ( ID * 100000000) + ( SubID *10000) + Begin . There are 552 observations in the dataset.

4.2 ID
Every conflict, as defined in Section 2.1, has its own ID. We have chosen a four-digit
Conflict ID, ranging from 1010 to 3270. There are 225 different conflicts that are ordered by Start_date and alphabetical value of Location. Hence, conflict 1010 is Bolivia in 1946, as Bolivia is the first country on the alphabetical list of countries experi5

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encing conflict in 1946. We have spaced the ID variable so that as yet undisclosed
conflicts can fit into the scheme.

4.3 SubID
Every sub-conflict is identified by the SubID variable. The default value is 0, andevery new sub-conflict has a new number. Most conflict does not have sub-conflicts,
but 45 of the 225 conflicts have been split up into different sub-conflicts.
Number of sub-conflicts
0
1
2
3

Count
180
32
10
3

4.4 Location
Location is defined as the government side of a conflict.
• For intrastate and internationalized intrastate conflicts, only one country nameis listed. This is the country whose government or territory is disputed. For
certain conflicts, i.e. Kurdistan, the disputed territory will be divided between
different countries. Following our definition, we have coded individual conflicts for each country.
• For interstate conflict, the Location field is more problematic. Following theoriginal definition, all governments involved in an interstate conflict are to be
included as the location. This leads to an inconsistency, as foreign support fora rebel organization will differ from foreign support to the attacking party in
an interstate war. This inconsistency is solved in the original conflict list3 describing the conflicts by the frequent use of footnotes. The more stringent data
structure described in this document does not allow us this freedom. We have
solved the problem by only including in the location field the governmentswith a claim over the territory being disputed. This means France and the UK
are included as location countries in the Suez war, while the USA is not included as location in the Vietnam war.
• For extra-state conflicts, Location is set to be the disputed area, not the government of the colonial power. This is a rather difficult problem, as the Location by default is not a member of the international system, and hence it is incompatible with the definition presented in Section 2.
Location is a string variable, listing the names of the countries involved. Thesemight be fighting together or against each other. The string is split in two ways, hyphen (‘-‘) splits the different sides in an interstate war, and comma (‘,’) splits different
countries fighting together on the same side.

4.5 Side_A
Side A is the government side of all intrastate conflicts, one of the sides in an interstate conflict, and the colonial state in extra-state conflicts. By definition, a nongovernmental group cannot be part of an armed conflict on this side. For all interstate
conflicts, we only list governments, and for all extrastate or internal conflicts, every
conflict involving a non-governmental actor on the governments side versus anothernon-governmental actor can be broken up into two conflicts; the government vs. the3

http://www.prio.no/cwp/armedconflict/current/conflict_list_1946-2001.pdf

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opposition and the pro-government group vs. the opposition. The latter is a conflictwith no government actor and falls outside our definition. Hence, Side A will only list
governments. In some interstate conflicts, Side A lists more countries than are listed
in the Location field. This is based on a subjective judgment. The UK and France arelisted in the Location field in the 1956 war with Egypt, along with Israel, while the
US is not listed in the Location field of the interstate war between North and South
Vietnam.
Side A is a string variable, where the different country names are separated by acomma (‘,’).

4.6 Side_B
Side B is the opposition side of all intrastate and extra-state conflicts, and the secondside in an interstate conflict. Side B can include both countries and non-governmental
opposition groups. There might be conflicts where different opposition groups fighteach other as well as the government, but this will not be evident from the coding ofSide B. Governments listed in Side B can support one or more of the oppositiongroups, but neither this can be read out of the field. We refer to the conflict list4 formore information on opposition groups.
Side B is a string variable, where the different country names are separated by acomma (‘,’).

4.7 Incompatibility
As one country can experience several conflicts, we need a way to differentiate between them. Incompatibility can be either over Government or Territory. There can be
only one incompatibility over Government in a given year, but there can be several
territorial conflicts involving both opposition organizations and other governments ineither intrastate or interstate conflicts.

4.8 Territory
If the incompatibility is Territory, this variable will name that territory.

4.9 Begin
The first year of the observation period, as defined in Section 3.

4.10 EndThe last year of the observation period, as defined in Section 3. The observation includes the period [Begin, End], including both Begin year and End year. In cases
where Begin and End are equal, the period is one year.

4.11 Intensity
The intensity variable is coded in three categories:
1. Minor: More than 25 battle-related deaths per year for every year in the period.
2. Intermediate: More than 25 battle-related deaths per year and a total conflicthistory of more than 1000 battle-related deaths.
3. War: More than 1000 battle-related deaths per year for every year in the period

4

See note 3.

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This variable is not ordinal. The intermediate category is not necessarily more intense than the minor category, but it adds an element of history that is not coded in the
categories ‘minor’ or ‘war’. Some users may prefer to recode this variable as a dichotomy (minor conflict/war) and use the historical information (cumulative deaths
exceeds 1000: yes/no) as a separate variable.

4.12 TypeWe define four types of conflict:
1. Extra-state: Extra-state conflict is a conflict over a territory between a government and one or more opposition groups, where the territory is a colony of
the government.
2. Interstate: Interstate conflict is a conflict between two or more countries andgovernments.
3. Internal: Internal conflict is conflict within a country between a governmentand one or more opposition groups, with no interference from other countries
4. Internationalized internal: Similar to Internal conflict, but where the government, the opposition or both sides receive support from other governments
See also Figure 3 in Gleditsch, Wallensteen, Eriksson, Sollenberg, & Strand (2002:
624).

4.13 Startdate
Start date is coded as the initial event of the conflict, regardless of whether this event
took place in a year recorded as having a conflict or not.

4.14 Startprecision
For certain conflicts, we can pinpoint the start of the armed conflict down to a single
event, taking place on a given day. For other conflicts, this is not possible, due to operational difficulties or missing information.
Some conflicts have a sliding period of escalation, where it can be difficult topoint to a single event being the initial event. In such cases, we have to make a subjective judgement. When the information we have gathered does yield any basis for adecision, we also have to set a date. Both of these problems are reflected in the codingof the Start date precision.
1. Both day and month are precisely coded, based on operational criterions andgood information
2. Day is assigned, month and year is precisely coded. This can be due to bothkinds of problem discussed above. The assigned date can either be one of several events that can be classified as the first event, or it can be an event thatdifferent sources claim occur on different dates.
3. Month and year are precisely coded, day is unknown. The exact day is known
to be in a given month, but there are no data available. Day is then set to thefirst day of the month
4. Month is assigned, year is coded precisely. Similar to item 2 in this list, there
is uncertainty regarding the month, not only the day. Month and day assigned
based on subjective judgment.
5. Both day and month missing, only year is known and coded precisely. The
start date is assigned to 1 January of that year.

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6. Year is assigned. Similar to item 2 and item 4, there is wide disagreement between different sources, so that not even year can be coded precisely. The startdate is then assigned based on subjective judgment.
7. Year is missing. No information on the start date is available; the start date is
set to 1 January of the first year recorded in conflict.

4.15 Startdate2
Due to the incompatibility of the calendar-year observation unit and the event-based
coding of start date, a number of conflicts start before the first year recorded as having
conflict. This is unfortunate for some applications, and we include a variable where allthese start dates have been set to 1 January of the first year recorded in conflict.

4.16 Startprecision2
The precision coding for Start date 2 differs only from Start date precision on the startdates that have been changed, and these are given the value 11.

4.17 COW_A
To ease analytical use of the dataset, we have coded the COW number for all participating countries/governments for that observation. We have split this into a Side A
and a Side B. For interstate conflict, Side A and Side B are assigned arbitrarily, but
for the three other categories of conflict some additional explanation is necessary: Allcountries fighting together on the government side are listed on Side A and all countries aiding opposition groups are listed on Side B. We may safely assume that all
countries listed under Side A are fighting together, but this assumption is more problematic for Side B. There might be conflicts where several governments support different opposition groups, which might fight separately against the government or evenfight each other. We have not recorded which governments support which oppositiongroups.
COW_A is a string variable, where the list of numbers are separated by comma(‘,’).

4.18 COW_B
See COW_A.

4.19 COW_location(See Section 4.4). This field holds the COW numbers of all governments listed in the
Location variable. These actors are the primary actors in the conflict, with a claim in
the object of dispute. It does, as stated before, not imply that there necessarily is conflict on the territories controlled by the listed actors.
COW location is a string variable, where the numbers are separated by a comma(‘,’).

4.20 Continent
The conflict definition specifies a continent variable, with the following five continents:
1. Europe: Geographic definition, including the states in the Caucasus, corresponding to the COW numbers [200,395]

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2. Middle East: Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Syria, Turkey,
and the states of the Arabian Peninsula, corresponding to the COW numbers[630,698]
3. Asia: Geographic definition, including Oceania, Australia, and New Zealand,corresponding to the COW numbers [700,990]
4. Africa: Geographic definition, excluding states in the Middle East (see above),corresponding to the COW numbers [400,625]
5. Americas: Geographic definition, including states in the Caribbean, corresponding to the COW numbers [2,165]
This definition is the basis of a figure that has been published in the annual update (most recently in Wallensteen & Sollenberg, 2001), and can be used to replicate
these graphs. This figure is not included in Gleditsch, Wallensteen, Eriksson, Sollenberg & Strand (2002).
Figure 1: Number of Armed Conflicts by Region, 1946–2001

4.21 Lat
In order to specify the geographic location of each conflict, every observation is assigned a conflict center point by its geographical coordinates (latitude and longitude).
The conflict center is fixed, so as to represent the geographic mid-point of all significant battle-zones during the conflict, including territory occupied by the opposition
actors. The latitude and longitude variables are represented by decimal degrees on a360˚ scale. Southern latitudes and western longitudes have negative values.

4.22 Lon
See Lat.

4.23 Radius
The radius variable indicates the largest geographic extent of the conflict zone fromthe center point during the course of conflict. The radius variable is measured in 50kilometer intervals. For conflicts that took place within a single spot (city, military10Armed conflict dataset

Version 1.10base), the radius variable is set at 50 km. Users should be aware of the limitations of
this variable. At a given point in time, the actual conflict zone might be more constrained than the maximum size that is recorded here. Furthermore, we define a circular zone of conflict whereas the actual shape is more likely to follow the contours ofinternational boundaries, mountains, rivers, etc. In fact, the circular conflict zone
might also cover territory not directly affected by the conflict, and even the territoryof a neighboring country. Work is in progress to refine this variable by introducing
polygon-shaped conflict zones.
Figure 2: Geographic Location of all Armed Conflicts, 1989–2000

Plotted by the ViewConflicts program (Rød, Gleditsch & Buhaug, 2002) on the basis of this database. For a map that includes all conflicts 1946–2001, see Figure 1 in Buhaug & Gates (2002:
423).

4.24 Version
The current version of this dataset is 1.1. For every new release, major changes will
be documented in a separate document.5 This should be helpful to researchers trying
to replicate a particular study. We recommend that whenever this dataset is used, theVersion number be cited.
The version number consists of a major and minor indicator. A change in the major indicator implies that new data have been added, while a change in the minor indicator is made when errors have been corrected.

5 Monadic dataset
We have prepared a monadic (or country-year) dataset based on the database. Most
analyses of civil conflict are made with this data structure. As there are four different
types of conflicts in the database, we have included an extensive set of variables in themonadic file. These variables should, combined, cover most possible uses of the dataset, but they will rarely all be used in the same study.
Since some countries can experience simultaneous conflicts, we report the highest
intensity level for each conflict type.
5

http://www.prio.no/cwp/armedconflict/version_history.pdf

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The monadic dataset is available in a number of formats, SPSS, Stata 6, Excel 4,
Semi-colon separated text file.

5.1 Variables
No.
1
2
3

Variable
year
cow
Type1

4

Type2

5

Type3

6

Type4

7

Location

8
9

Count
VersionDescriptionYear
COW country code
0: No extra-state conflict
1: Extra-state minor armed conflict
2: Extra-state intermediate armed conflict
3: Extra-state war
0: No interstate conflict
1: Interstate minor armed conflict
2: Interstate intermediate armed conflict
3: Interstate war
0: No internal conflict
1: Internal minor armed conflict
2: Internal intermediate armed conflict
3: Internal war
0: No Internationalized internal conflict
1: Internationalized internal minor armed conflict
2: Internationalized internal intermediate armed conflict
3: Internationalized internal war
0: Country is not listed as location of a conflict
1: Country is listed as location of a minor armed conflict
2: Country is listed as location of an intermediate armed conflict
3: Country is listed as location of a war (see Sec. 4.4; 4.19)
Number of conflicts within a country
Version information

6 Dyadic dataset
The dyadic (actually dyad-year) dataset contains a total of 15,185 dyads and 510,835
dyad-years.

6.1 Definition of variables
The descriptions for the variables in the dyadic dataset reference some of the variablesin the parent dataset. These variables are listed below. Please also refer to the complete variable descriptions in Section 4 of this document.
Intensity

Incompatibility

Type

0: No conflict
1–3: See Section 4.11
A state may be involved in more than one conflict ofany type in a given year. The intensity of the highestlevel conflict is recorded.
0: No conflict
1–2: See Section 4.7
3: Both 1 and 2
See Section 4.12

6.2 Variables
1
2

Variable
A_COW
B_COW

Description
Correlates of War ID for State A
Correlates of War ID for State B

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3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12

VariableYear
Civ_A
Civ_A_Inc
Civ_B
Civ_B_Inc
War_A
War_A_Inc
War_B
War_B_Inc
War_AB

13
14

War_AB_Inc
War_Ally

15
16

War_Ally_Inc
Typ4L_A

17
18

Typ4L_A_Inc
Typ4L_B

19
20

Typ4L_B_Inc
Typ4I_A

21
22

Typ4I_A_Inc
Typ4I_B

23
24

Typ4I_B_Inc
Typ4_AB25
26

Typ4_AB_Inc
Typ4_Ally

27
28

Typ4_Ally_Inc
Typ1_A29
30

Typ1_A_Inc
Typ1_B

31
32
33
34

Typ1_B_Inc
NumConflicts_A
NumConflicts_B
Key_A

35

Key_B

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Description
Current dyad-year
State A’s involvement intrastate conflict type 3 (Intensity)
Incompatibility of the above conflict(s)State B’s involvement intrastate conflict type 3 (Intensity)
Incompatibility of the above conflict(s)State A’s involvement intrastate conflict type 2 (Intensity)
Incompatibility of the above conflict(s)State B’s involvement intrastate conflict type 2 (Intensity)
Incompatibility of the above conflict(s)States A-B is involved on opposite sides in an interstate conflicttype 2 (Intensity)
Incompatibility of the above conflict(s)States A-B is involved on the same side in an interstate conflicttype 2 (Intensity)
Incompatibility of the above conflict(s)State A is the location of one or more intrastate conflict type 4 (Intensity)
Incompatibility of the above conflict(s)State B is the location of one or more intrastate conflict type 4 (Intensity)
Incompatibility of the above conflict(s)State A is involved as an intervening state in one or more intrastate conflict type 4 (Intensity)
Incompatibility of the above conflict(s)State B is involved as an intervening state in one or more intrastate conflict type 4 (Intensity)
Incompatibility of the above conflict(s)States A-B is involved on opposite sides in an intrastate w/foreignintervention conflict type 4 (Intensity)
Incompatibility of the above conflict(s)States A-B is involved on the same side in an intrastate w/foreignintervention conflict type 4 (Intensity) See Section 6.3.2.
Incompatibility of the above conflict(s)State A is involved in one or more extra-state conflict type 1 (Intensity)
Incompatibility of the above conflict(s)State B is involved in one or more extra-state conflict type 1 (Intensity)
Incompatibility of the above conflict(s)Number of conflicts recorded for state A in the current year
Number of conflicts recorded for state B in the current year
Comma [,] separated references to the variable Primkey in theparent dataset for each conflict state A is involved in the current
year. See Section 4.1
Comma [,] separated references to the variable Primkey in theparent dataset for each conflict state B is involved in the current
year. See Section 4.1

6.3 Notes
1. States intervening on the side of the dependent territory in conflicts type 1 are
excluded. This applies only to Cuba, South Africa, and Zaire in the conflict inAngola (1961–74).
2. All countries fighting together on the government side are listed on side A andall countries aiding opposition groups are listed on side B. We can calmly as-

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sume that all countries listed under side A are fighting together, but the same
assumption is more problematic for side B. (See Section 4.17)

7 Technical Information
7.1 Database
The database is stored in a Microsoft Access 2000 database. The main table [Armed
Conflict Database] is defined with the following data types:
No.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24

Variable
PrimkeyID
SubID
Location
Side_A
Side_B
Incompability
Territory
Begin
End
Intensity
Type
Startdate
Startprecision
Startdate2
Startprecision2
COW_A
COW_B
COW_location
Continent
Lat
Lon
RadiusVersionDefinition
LONG INTEGERINTEGER
BYTE
TEXT
TEXT
TEXT
BYTE
TEXT
INTEGERINTEGER
BYTE
BYTE
DATE/TIME
BYTE
DATE/TIME
BYTE
TEXT
TEXT
TEXT
BYTE
DOUBLEDOUBLEINTEGERSINGLEThe monadic file is stored in the table [Monadic] with the following definition:
No.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9

Variable
Year
COW
Type1
Type2
Type3
Type4
LocationCount
VersionDefinition
INTEGERINTEGER
BYTE
BYTE
BYTE
BYTE
BYTE
BYTE
SINGLEThe dyadic file is stored in the table [Dyadic] with the following definition:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

Variable
A_COW_ID
B_COW_ID
Year
Civ_A
Civ_A_Inc
Civ_B
Civ_B_Inc
War_A

Definition
INTEGERINTEGERINTEGER
BYTE
BYTE
BYTE
BYTE
BYTE

14

Armed conflict dataset

9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36

Variable
War_A_Inc
War_B
War_B_Inc
War_AB
War_AB_Inc
War_Ally
War_Ally_Inc
Typ4L_A
Typ4L_A_Inc
Typ4L_B
Typ4L_B_Inc
Typ4I_A
Typ4I_A_Inc
Typ4I_B
Typ4I_B_Inc
Typ4_AB
Typ4_AB_Inc
Typ4_Ally
Typ4_Ally_Inc
Typ1_A
Typ1_A_Inc
Typ1_B
Typ1_B_Inc
NumConflicts_A
NumConflicts_B
Key_A
Key_B
VersionVersion 1.10

Definition
BYTE
BYTE
BYTE
BYTE
BYTE
BYTE
BYTE
BYTE
BYTE
BYTE
BYTE
BYTE
BYTE
BYTE
BYTE
BYTE
BYTE
BYTE
BYTE
BYTE
BYTE
BYTE
BYTE
BYTE
BYTE
TEXT
TEXT
SINGLE

7.2 Text file
The text file is exported from the database with semi-colon (‘;’) as the field separator
and in the Western European (Windows) / ISO-8859-1 code page.

7.3 SPSS file
Made with Stat/Transfer 5.1.4.

7.4 Stata file
Made with Stat/Transfer 5.1.4.

7.5 Excel file
Exported out of the main database. Due to the size of the dyadic file, this file could
not be converted to Excel.

8 System membership description
The definition of a state is crucial to our conflict list. The conflict definition is based
upon participating governmental actors of independent states, and the classification ofa given conflict rests heavily upon the status of the different actors. A conflict between two recognized governments is an interstate war, while a conflict between arecognized government and a party soon to become a recognized government can be

15Armed conflict dataset

Version 1.10

classified as either internal war (i.e. Eritrea) or extra-state war (i.e. Laos) or if (4.2)
applies, interstate war. The definition of a state in the original conflict definition is asfollows:(4) State: A state is(4.1) an internationally recognized sovereign government controlling a specified territory, or(4.2) an internationally unrecognized government controlling a specified territory whose sovereignty is not disputed by another internationally recognized sovereign government previously controlling the same territory.
This is a very wide definition, which allows us a significant flexibility when it
comes to include small and short-lived governments, and thereby classifying conflicts
precisely. However, this flexibility is costly when we want to compare conflicts overtime. If we want to answer the question ‘Is there more conflict now than during theCold War?’, we need to compare the ratio of states in conflict to states in peace at different points in time. To do that, we need a complete list of states over time.
By far the most widely used system membership definition is that of the Correlates of War Project. The most recent update is (COW, 1988). The starting point forthis list was Russett et al. (1968). Before 1920 the Russett et al. definition includes
countries with a population of more than 10,000 and diplomatic relations with Britain
and France. After 1920 countries are included if they have either membership in the
League of Nations or the UN, or a population of more than 500,000 and recognition
from two major powers in the system. Gleditsch & Ward (1999) have proposed analternative operationalization of system membership. They include countries with apopulation of more than 250.000, ‘an relatively autonomous administration over someterritory’, and ‘considered a distinct entity by local actors or states it is dependent on’.
The Gleditsch & Ward system definition is more flexible and addresses a numberof problematic aspects in the earlier Russett et al. definition, and it also fits our definition of state better. Lack of diplomatic recognition by a major power can be an indicator of conflict, and is therefore a problematic aspect of a system membership definition for our use.
However, countries with less than 250,000 inhabitants can also experience conflict, and we would ideally have chosen to include such countries as governmental
actors in our dataset. The only case where this is problematic is presented by thearmed conflict Hyderabad vs. India. Hyderabad declared itself independent in 1947. A
civil war broke out between the Indian government and a rebel movement, ending in
an invasion by India.
For most quantitative applications of this dataset this will not be relevant, as thelack of control variables most probably will leave this observation out of the analysis.
We have chosen, at this time, to build our monadic and dyadic time frames on the
Gleditsch & Ward system membership data, so that there will be an observation(country-year or dyad-year) for the whole Gleditsch & Ward frame.
COW_ID
2
20
31
35

Abbr.
USA
CAN
BHM
BAR

State name
United States of America
CanadaBahamasBarbadosStart_year
1946
1946
1973
1966

16

End_year
2001
2001
2001
2001

Armed conflict dataset

COW_ID
40
41
42
51
52
70
80
90
91
92
93
94
95
100
101
110
115
130
135
140
145
150
155
160
165
200
205
210
211
212
220
225
230
235
260
265
290
305
310
315
316
317
325
338
339
343
344
345
346
349
350
352
355

Abbr.
CUB
HAI
DOM
JAM
TRI
MEX
BLZ
GUA
HON
SAL
NIC
COS
PAN
COL
VEN
GUY
SUR
ECU
PER
BRA
BOL
PAR
CHL
ARG
URU
UK
IRE
NTH
BEL
LUX
FRN
SWZ
SPN
POR
GFR
GDR
POL
AUS
HUN
CZE
CZR
SLO
ITA
MLT
ALB
MAC
CRO
YUG
BOS
SLV
GRC
CYP
BUL

Version 1.10

State name
Cuba
Haiti
Dominican Republic
Jamaica
Trinidad and Tobago
MexicoBelizeGuatemalaHonduras
El Salvador
Nicaragua
Costa Rica
PanamaColombia
Venezuela
GuyanaSurinamEcuador
Peru
BrazilBoliviaParaguay
Chile
Argentina
Uruguay
United Kingdom
IrelandNetherlands
Belgium
Luxembourg
FranceSwitzerland
Spain
Portugal
German Federal Republic
German Democratic Republic
PolandAustria
Hungary
Czechoslovakia
Czech Republic
Slovakia
Italy/Sardinia
Malta
Albania
Macedonia
Croatia
Yugoslavia (Serbia)
Bosnia-Herzegovina
Slovenia
GreeceCyprusBulgaria

17

Start_year
1946
1946
1946
1962
1962
1946
1981
1946
1946
1946
1946
1946
1946
1946
1946
1966
1975
1946
1946
1946
1946
1946
1946
1946
1946
1946
1946
1946
1946
1946
1946
1946
1946
1946
1949
1949
1946
1946
1946
1946
1993
1993
1946
1964
1946
1991
1991
1946
1992
1991
1946
1960
1946

End_year
2001
2001
2001
2001
2001
2001
2001
2001
2001
2001
2001
2001
2001
2001
2001
2001
2001
2001
2001
2001
2001
2001
2001
2001
2001
2001
2001
2001
2001
2001
2001
2001
2001
2001
2001
1990
2001
2001
2001
1992
2001
2001
2001
2001
2001
2001
2001
2001
2001
2001
2001
2001
2001

Armed conflict dataset

COW_ID
359
360
365
366
367
368
369
370
371
372
373
375
380
385
390
395
402
404
411
420
426
432
433
434
435
437
438
439
450
451
452
461
471
475
481
482
483
484
490
500
501
510
511
516
517
520
522
530
531
540
541
551
552

Abbr.
MLD
RUM
RUS
EST
LAT
LIT
UKR
BLR
ARM
GRG
AZE
FIN
SWD
NOR
DEN
ICE
CAP
GNB
EQG
GAM
NIR
MLI
SEN
BEN
MAA
CDI
GUI
BFO
LBR
SIE
GHA
TOG
CAO
NIG
GAB
CEN
CHA
CON
DRC
UGA
KEN
TAZ
ZAN
BUI
RWA
SOM
DJI
ETH
ERI
ANG
MZM
ZAM
ZIM

Version 1.10

State name
Moldova
Rumania
Russia (Soviet Union)
Estonia
LatviaLithuania
UkraineBelarus
Armenia
Georgia
Azerbaijan
FinlandSwedenNorwayDenmark
IcelandCape Verde
Guinea-Bissau
Equatorial Guinea
GambiaNiger
Mali
SenegalBenin
Mauritania
Cote D’Ivoire
GuineaBurkina Faso (Upper Volta)
Liberia
Sierra Leone
Ghana
Togo
Cameroon
Nigeria
Gabon
Central African Republic
Chad
Congo
Congo, Democratic Republic of (Zaire)
UgandaKenya
Tanzania/Tanganyika
ZanzibarBurundiRwandaSomalia
Djibouti
Ethiopia
EritreaAngolaMozambiqueZambiaZimbabwe (Rhodesia)

18

Start_year
1991
1946
1946
1991
1991
1991
1991
1991
1991
1991
1991
1946
1946
1946
1946
1946
1975
1974
1960
1965
1960
1960
1960
1960
1960
1960
1958
1960
1946
1961
1957
1960
1960
1960
1960
1960
1960
1961
1960
1962
1963
1961
1963
1962
1962
1960
1977
1946
1993
1975
1975
1964
1965

End_year
2001
2001
2001
2001
2001
2001
2001
2001
2001
2001
2001
2001
2001
2001
2001
2001
2001
2001
2001
2001
2001
2001
2001
2001
2001
2001
2001
2001
2001
2001
2001
2001
2001
2001
2001
2001
2001
2001
2001
2001
2001
2001
1964
2001
2001
2001
2001
2001
2001
2001
2001
2001
2001

Armed conflict dataset

COW_ID
553
560
565
570
571
572
580
581
590
600
615
616
620
625
630
640
645
651
652
660
663
666
670
678
680
690
692
694
696
698
700
701
702
703
704
705
710
711
712
713
731
732
740
750
760
770
771
775
780
781
790
800
811

Abbr.
MAW
SAF
NAM
LES
BOT
SWA
MAG
COM
MAS
MOR
ALG
TUN
LIB
SUD
IRN
TUR
IRQ
EGY
SYR
LEB
JOR
ISR
SAU
YEM
YPR
KUW
BAH
QAT
UAE
OMA
AFG
TKM
TAJ
KYR
UZB
KZK
CHN
TBT
MON
TAW
PRK
ROK
JPN
IND
BHU
PAK
BNG
MYA
SRI
MAD
NEP
THI
CAM

Version 1.10

State name
MalawiSouth Africa
Namibia
LesothoBotswana
Swaziland
Madagascar (Malagasy)
Comoros
Mauritius
MoroccoAlgeria
Tunisia
Libya
Sudan
Iran
Turkey
Iraq
Egypt
Syria
LebanonJordanIsraelSaudi Arabia
Yemen (Arab Republic of Yemen)
Yemen, People's Republic of
KuwaitBahrain
Qatar
United Arab Emirates
Oman
Afghanistan
Turkmenistan
Tajikistan
Kyrgyz Republic
Uzbekistan
Kazakhstan
China
Tibet
Mongolia
TaiwanKorea, People's Republic ofKorea, Republic of
Japan
India
BhutanPakistan
Bangladesh
Myanmar (Burma)
Sri Lanka (Ceylon)
Maldives
Nepal
ThailandCambodia (Kampuchea)

19

Start_year
1964
1946
1990
1966
1966
1968
1960
1975
1968
1956
1962
1956
1951
1956
1946
1946
1946
1946
1946
1946
1946
1948
1946
1946
1967
1961
1971
1971
1971
1946
1946
1991
1991
1991
1991
1991
1946
1946
1946
1949
1948
1948
1946
1947
1949
1947
1972
1948
1948
1965
1946
1946
1954

End_year
2001
2001
2001
2001
2001
2001
2001
2001
2001
2001
2001
2001
2001
2001
2001
2001
2001
2001
2001
2001
2001
2001
2001
2001
1990
2001
2001
2001
2001
2001
2001
2001
2001
2001
2001
2001
2001
1950
2001
2001
2001
2001
2001
2001
2001
2001
2001
2001
2001
2001
2001
2001
2001

Armed conflict dataset

COW_ID
812
816
817
820
830
835
840
850
900
910
920
940
950

Abbr.
LAO
DRV
RVN
MAL
SIN
BRU
PHI
INS
AUL
PNG
NEW
SOL
FJI

Version 1.10

State name
Laos
Vietnam, Democratic Republic ofVietnam, Republic of
Malaysia
Singapore
Brunei
Philippines
Indonesia
Australia
Papua New Guinea
New Zealand
Solomon Islands
Fiji

20

Start_year
1954
1954
1954
1957
1965
1984
1946
1946
1946
1975
1946
1978
1970

End_year
2001
2001
1975
2001
2001
2001
2001
2001
2001
2001
2001
2001
2001

Armed conflict dataset

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9 References
COW, 1998. ‘Interstate System, 1816-1997’, Correlates of War2 Project.
http://pss.la.psu.edu/cow data/StateSystem.ZIP.
Gleditsch, Kristian S. & Michael D. Ward, 1999. ‘A Revised List of Independent
States since the Congress of Vienna.’ International Interactions, 25(4): 393–413.
Gleditsch, Nils Petter; Peter Wallensteen, Mikael Eriksson, Margareta Sollenberg &Håvard Strand, 2002. ‘Armed Conflict 1946–2001: A New Dataset’, Journal of Peace
Research 39(5): 615–637.
Russett, Bruce M.; J. David Singer & Melvin Small, 1968. ‘National Political Units in
the Twentieth Century: A Standardized List.’ American Political Science Review
62(1): 932–951.
Rød, Jan Ketil, Nils Petter Gleditsch & Halvard Buhaug, 2002. ‘Kartografisk
visualisering av konflikter’ [Cartographic Visualization of Conflicts], paper presented
totheAnnual
Mapping
Days,
Oslo,
13–15
March,
www.geoforum.no/kartdag/kartdag.htm.
Wallensteen, Peter & Margareta Sollenberg, 2001. ‘Armed Conflict 1989–2000’,
Journal of Peace Research 38(5): 629–644.

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