| COW | COW Wars v. 4.0, 1816-2007 |
The COW Project will introduce COW Wars v4.0, 1816-2007 in 2010. The paper “The COW Typology of War: Defining and Categorizing Wars (Version 4 of the Data)” by Meredith Reid Sarkees gives an overview of the COW war typology, the descriptions of the basic variables, coding rules and some of the changes since “Resort to Arms.” The artice is also available in .rtf format here.
In March 2010, the New COW War List was released. On June 30, 2010, the Non-State War Data set (v4.0) became available. On October 28, 2010, the Intra-State War Data set (v4.0) was released. On March 1, 2011, the Inter-State War Data set (v4.0) became available online. Finally, we released Extra-State War Data set (v4.0) on December 8, 2011.
In any papers or publications that refer to this war list, users are asked to use:
Bibliography Entry: Sarkees, Meredith Reid and Frank Wayman (2010). Resort to War: 1816 - 2007. CQ Press.
The new list of COW wars is available here.
Previously, the Correlates of War (COW) Project has examined only wars that involved the government of a member of the interstate system (a state) in one form or another. The inclusion of non-state wars in the data presented here represents an attempt to broaden our understanding of war by including wars between or among non-state entities. Such entities include governments of other types of geopolitical units (GPUs), such as dependencies or non-state autonomous entities, that do not meet the criteria of system membership. They also might involve nonterritorial entities (NTEs) or non-state armed groups (NSAs) that have no defined territorial base.
| NonStateWarData_v4.0.csv | The Non-State War Database. Please note the distinction between the “-8” and “-9” codes as specififed in the codebook listed below. |
| ListNonStateWars.pdf | The list of Non-State Wars. |
| NonStateWars_Codebook.pdf | The codebook v4.0 for the Non-State War Data set. |
The Correlates of War (COW) Project has utilized a classification of wars that is based upon the status of territorial entities, in particular focusing on those that are classified as members of the inter-state system (referred to as “states”). This dataset encompasses wars that predominantly take place within the recognized territory of a state, or intra-state wars.
| IntraStateWarData_v4.1.csv | The Intra-State War Database. Please note the distinction between the “-8” and “-9” codes as specififed in the codebook listed below. |
| IntraStateWars_Codebook.pdf | The codebook v4.0 for the Intra-State War Data set. |
The Correlates of War (COW) Project has utilized a classification of wars that is based upon the status of territorial entities, in particular focusing on those that are classified as members of the inter-state system (referred to as “states”). This dataset encompasses wars that take place between or among the recognized states, or inter-state wars.
| InterStateWarData_v4.0.csv | The Inter-State War Database. Please note the distinction between the “-8” and “-9” codes as specififed in the codebook listed below. |
| ListInterStateWars.pdf | The list of Inter-State Wars. |
| InterStateWars_Codebook.pdf | The codebook v4.0 for the Inter-State War Data set. |
The Correlates of War (COW) Project has utilized a classification of wars that is based upon the status of territorial entities, in particular focusing on those that are classified as members of the inter-state system (referred to as “states”). This dataset encompasses wars in the middle category - wars that take place between a state(s) and a nonstate entity outside the borders of the state, or extra-state wars.
| ExtraStateWarData_v4.0.csv | The Extra-State War Database. Please note the distinction between the “-8” and “-9” codes as specififed in the codebook listed below. |
| ExtraStateWars_Codebook.pdf | The codebook v4.0 for the Extra-State War Data set. |
The war data sets are hosted by Meredith Sarkees, Women & Politics Institute at American University, and Frank Wayman, University of Michigan-Dearborn, under the COW Data Set Hosting Program. In case of questions, they may be contacted by email at sarkees@sbcglobal.net and fwayman@umich.edu.