| COW | COW Intra-State War Data, 1816-1997 (v3.0) |
Version 3.0 of the Correlates of War Intra-State War data set identifies intrastate wars and their participants between 1816 and 1997. Intrastate wars are wars that are fought within state borders between a government and non-government forces (civil war), or at least two non-government forces (inter-communal war). While there are two types of intrastate wars, these data only describe civil wars. In order to be classified as a civil war, the central government should be actively involved in military action with effective resistance for both sides, and there should be at least 1000 battle related deaths during the civil war. In order to constitute effective resistance, both sides must have been initially organized for violent conflict, or the weaker side must be able to inflict upon the stronger opponents at least five percent of the number of fatalities it sustains.
In any papers or publications that utilize this data set, users are asked to give the version number and cite the article of record for the data set, as follows:
Bibliography Entry: Sarkees, Meredith Reid (2000). "The Correlates of War Data on War: An Update to 1997," Conflict Management and Peace Science, 18/1: 123-144.
Additional information concerning the procedures followed to generate these data are to be found in the following publications.
Singer, J. David, and Melvin Small (1972). The Wages of War, 1816-1965: A Statistical Handbook. New York: John Wiley.
Small, Melvin, and J. David Singer (1982). Resort to Arms: International and Civil Wars, 1816-1980. Beverly Hills, Calif.: Sage Publications.
Version 3.0 of the Correlates of War Intra-State War data set is composed of two files, the formats of which are listed below. The files are CSV with the first line being variable lables. The first file, Intra-State Wars (V 3-0).CSV, presents information about the wars, while the second, Intra-State War Participants (V 3-0).CSV , contains information about the state participation in these wars.
Summaries of the Intra-State Wars and Intra-State War Participants data may be viewed.
The file has a comma-separated-variable (CSV) format with one record per war. The fields contained in each record are listed below.
| Field |
Content |
|---|---|
WarNo |
War number |
WarName |
Name of war |
StateNum |
COW country code of the major state |
| WarType |
4 = Civil war for control of central government, 5 = Conflict over local issues, 6 = Inter-communal conflict |
| YrBeg1 |
First beginning year of war |
| MonBeg1 |
First beginning month of war (-999 = missing) |
| DayBeg1 |
First beginning day of war (-999 = missing) |
| YrEnd1 |
First ending year of war |
| MonEnd1 |
First ending month of war (-999 = missing) |
| DayEnd1 |
First ending day of war (-999 = missing) |
| YrBeg2 |
Second beginning year of war (-999 = NA) |
| MonBeg2 |
Second beginning month of war (-999 = NA or missing) |
| DayBeg2 |
Second beginning day of war (-999 = NA or missing) |
| YrEnd2 |
Second ending year of war (-999 = NA) |
| MonEnd2 |
Second ending month of war (-999 = NA or missing) |
| DayEnd2 |
Second ending day of war (-999 = NA or missing) |
| Insurgnt |
Name of major insurgent group |
| Winner |
Victorious side in war (1 = government, 2 = opposition, 3 = government after war becomes inter-state war, 4 = opposition after war becomes an inter-state war, 5 = no winner/war ongoing as of 10/98, 6 = stalemate, 7 = no winner/war ongoing as of 10/98 after becoming inter-state war) |
| Interven |
Outside intervention in war? (1 = yes, 0 = no) |
| MinDur |
Minimum duration of war in days* |
| MaxDur |
Maximum duration of war in days* |
| StDeaths |
Total battle deaths of state participants (-999 = missing) |
| ToDeaths |
Total battle deaths of all participants (-999 = missing) |
| InCenSub |
War fought in member of the Central sub-system? (0 = no/NA [all coded "0" after 1920], 1 = yes) |
| InMajor |
War fought in major power? (0 = no, 1 = yes) |
| WestHem |
Was any part of the war fought in Western Hemisphere? (0 = no, 1 = yes) |
| Europe |
Was any part of the war fought in Europe? (0 = no, 1 = yes) |
| Africa |
Was any part of the war fought in Africa? (0 = no, 1 = yes) |
| MidEast |
Was any part of the war fought in Middle East? (0 = no, 1 = yes) |
| Asia |
Was any part of the war fought in Asia? (0 = no, 1 = yes) |
| Oceania |
Was any part of the war fought in Oceania? (0 = no, 1 = yes) |
| Version |
Version number of data set |
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| * Minimum and maximum duration values are calculated by assuming values for any missing beginning and/or ending months/days that would be consistent with the shortest and longest possible time span for the war participation. |
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The file has a comma-separated-variable (CSV) format with one record per war-participating state. There are no records for the major insurgent groups that participated in the wars. The fields contained in each record are listed below.
| Field |
Content |
|---|---|
| WarNo |
War number |
| StateNum |
COW country code of participant |
| StateAbb |
Abbreviated name of participant |
| YrBeg1 |
First beginning year of participant's involvement |
| MonBeg1 |
First beginning month of participant's involvement (-999 = missing) |
| DayBeg1 |
First beginning day of participant's involvement (-999 = missing) |
| YrEnd1 |
First ending year of participant's involvement |
| MonEnd1 |
First ending month of participant's involvement (-999 = missing) |
| DayEnd1 |
First ending day of participant's involvement (-999 = missing) |
| YrBeg2 |
Second beginning year of participant's involvement (-999 = NA) |
| MonBeg2 |
Second beginning month of participant's involvement (-999 = NA or missing) |
| DayBeg2 |
Second beginning day of participant's involvement (-999 = NA or missing) |
| YrEnd2 |
Second ending year of participant's involvement (-999 = NA) |
| MonEnd2 |
Second ending month of participant's involvement (-999 = NA or missing) |
| DayEnd2 |
Second ending day of participant's involvement (-999 = NA or missing) |
| MinDur |
Minimum length of war participation in days* |
| MaxDur |
Maximum length of war participation in days* |
| Deaths |
Number of battle related deaths sustained by participant's armed forces in war (-999= missing) |
| IntSide |
On which side did participant intervene? (0 = NA/state is undergoing intra-state war, 1 = on side of state; 2 = on side of opposition, 3 = on neither side) |
| SysStat |
System membership status of state (1 = neither central sub-system member nor major power, 2 = central sub-system member only [only relevant 1816 through 1919], 3 = central sub-system member & a major power [only relevant 1816 through 1919], 4 = major power only) |
| PrWarPop |
Pre-war population in thousands (number from year war begun, -999 = missing) |
| PrWarArm |
Pre-war armed forces in thousands (number from year war begun, -999 = missing) |
| Version |
Version number of data set |
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| * Minimum and maximum duration values are calculated by assuming values for any missing beginning and/or ending months/days that would be consistent with the shortest and longest possible time span for the war participation. |
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The war data sets are hosted by Meredith Sarkees, Women & Politics Institute at American University, and Jeff Dixon, Tarleton State University, under the COW Data Set Hosting Program. In case of questions or concerns concerning the data or coding rules, they may be contacted by email at sarkees@sbcglobal.net and jdixon@tarleton.edu.