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The original research question that spurred the Uppsala Conflict Data Program was whether there was an increase or a decrease in the number of conflicts from one year to the next, or in other words “Is the world getting more peaceful?”. This question implies the year as the relevant temporal unit. For duration analysis, however, the relevant temporal unit is at the core of the question – the duration of the conflict. Following other conflict data efforts (Singer & Small, 1994; Fearon & Laitin 2003), we have transformed the Armed Conflict Data to a list of conflicts, with start and end dates coded as precisely as possible. We have coded two dates pr. conflict transition: One date for the initial use of deadly force (the first fatality), and one date for the event that caused the conflict to fulfill all criteria of the Uppsala definition. At the other end, we have coded both the last date of violent action and the date where (in case of) a political settlement was reached.
When using the data, please cite Gleditsch et al. (2002) and Gates et al. (2006).
Yet we are still able to draw on an important contribution from the original annual focus. Since certain conflict are inactive for some period of time before they re-escalate, it is a matter of definition what constitutes one conflict with an intermittent period and what constitutes two distinct conflicts. These choices are left open for the user to decide.
References:
Scott Gates & Håvard Strand, 2006. 'Modeling the Duration of Civil Wars: Measurement and Estimation Issues', Working Paper.
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.