Updates: V3.03 (main alliance data; dyadic alliance data)

On July 3, 2003, we released version 3.03 of the main alliance data set. V3.03 of the alliance data changes the coding of 4 alliances to correct for 1 typo and 3 minor differences from the COW state membership list. The dyadic alliance files were updated accordingly. Changes are as follows:

1. Alliance #: 2001
   Signature Date: April 22, 1813
   Change from V3.01: This alliance should be removed from the CoW formal alliance data set. The end date is before 1/1/1816.
2. Alliance #: 2074
   Signature Date: August 27, 1891
   Change from V3.01: The end year is 1893, not 1993.
3. Alliance #: 3523
   Signature Date: June 17, 1950
   Changes from V3.01: UAE should be listed as a member from 12/2/1971, its CoW membership start date. Tunisia should be listed as a member from 3/20/1956; STNOTE changed to 1.
4. Alliance #: 3535
   Signature Date: October 20, 1955
   Change from V3.01: Syria joins Egypt as UAR from 2/1/1958 to 9/29/1961; the alliance does not exist during these years. The STNOTES and ENDNOTES variables have been changed accordingly.

Updates: V3.02 (single-record dyadic alliance data)

On March 14, 2003, we released version 3.02 of the dyadic alliance data set single-observation-per-year data set. This data set was modified from the v3.0 and v3.01 dyadic single-observation data set to correct an error that developed during the conversion from multiple record to single record per year data. In v3.0 and 3.01, a handful of dyad year observations (approximately 40 out of 88,000+ dyad-years) were mistakenly dropped because of a programming error. The cases dropped were essentially random (technically, they were dropped because of a sorting error; cases dropped were cases where an alliance in one dyad started in the same year that the alliance in the dyad listed prior ended). v3.01 contained 88371 obervations; v3.02 contains 88412 observations.

The current version of the multiple-observation-per-year data set is v3.01, and is identical to the earlier v3.0 dyadic-multiple data set.

Updates: V3.01 (main alliance data)

On February 19, 2003, we released version 3.01 of the main alliance data set. The substantive data on alliance membership, including dates of entry and exit, state members of alliances, and alliance types, are identical to the original v3.0 release. The only change for v3.01 is that we have changed the format of one variable, specifically the formatting of the state names listed within the data set (in the variable “STATENM”). In version 3.0, some state names contained commas (e.g., “South Korea” was listed as “Korea, South”). Most statistical software reading comma-separated-variable data files can handle this format, but it may cause some problems for custom programs and particular routines. As a result, we modified the state names in v3.01 to remove the commas (and so, e.g., “Korea, South” is now listed in the data set as “South Korea”). IF YOU HAVE BEEN USING V3.0 DATA WITHOUT A PROBLEM, THERE IS NO NEED TO DOWNLOAD V3.01 AND PERFORM NEW ANALYSIS.

Original data: V3.0

On December 20, 2003, we released version 3.0 of the main alliance data set. On January 6, 2003, we released the first dyadic version of the data set.