Data Development for International Research: Event-Data Collection and Software

在过去的二十年里，国际关系这个子领域出现了许多令人兴奋的新理论。提出了重要的理论来解释超级大国和小国之间战争的开始和扩散，国际军备竞赛的动态，国际经济的结构和运行，包括贸易流动和国际发展，以及国内暴力的原因，包括革命、叛乱、政变，和暗杀只是社会科学理论发展的几个方面。尽管也投入了大量精力对这些理论进行实证检验，但缺乏关于国际事件的大量可靠的时间序列数据阻碍了进展。该奖项支持一个长期项目--国际研究数据开发(DDIR)--的继续，以维持、扩展和提高用于研究和分析跨国和国际政治事件的主要数据库的质量。DDIR的第一阶段填写和更新了主要的国际数据集。第二阶段将继续更新收集情况，同时为今后的数据收集工作建立一个更持久的基础。具体地说，该项目有两个主要推动力：1)更新和扩展四个主要事件数据集，COPDAB、WEIS、BCOW和SHERFACS，以及2)开发计算机技术，以简化数据收集工作，并将其成本降低到不需要联邦持续支持的水平。当这个项目完成后，将提供一个更大、更完整、更可靠的数据集，用来测试和提炼国际和跨国政治中的现有理论。

The subfield of International Relations has seen a proliferation of exciting new theories over the past twenty years. Important theories have been advanced to account for the onset and diffusion of war among both superpowers and smaller states, the dynamics of international arms races, the structure and operation of the international economy including trade flows and international development, and the causes of internal violence including revolutions, rebellions, coups d'etat, and assassination to cite only a few of the fronts on which social science theory has been advanced. Although considerable energy also has been devoted to efforts to test these theories empirically, the absence of an extensive body of reliable time- series data on international events has impeded progress. This award supports continuation of a long term project -- Data Development in International Research (DDIR) -- to maintain, extend and improve the quality of major databanks for the study and analysis of cross-national and international political events. The first stage of DDIR filled in and updated major international data sets. This second stage will continue to update the collections while establishing a more permanent base for future data collection efforts. Specifically, the project has two principal thrusts: 1) to update and extend the four main event datasets, COPDAB, WEIS, BCOW, and SHERFACS, and 2) to develop the computer technology that will simplify data collection efforts and reduce their costs to levels that do not require continuing federal support. When completed this project will provide a much larger, more complete, and more reliable set of data with which to test and refine existing theories in international and cross-national politics.