Interstate Wars, 1816-2007

What is it about?

This paper describes a new data set, the Interstate War Data, listing all interstate wars from 1816-2007. A conflict is an interstate war if it involves at least two countries, and there are at least 1000 battle dead. The data set also describes exactly who fought whom within multilateral wars like World Wars I and II.

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Why is it important?

The data set described in the paper marks a substantial improvement on existing war data. Specifically, the paper points out how in one mainstream data set on interstate wars, the Correlates of War Interstate War data, there are consequential errors in more than one third of its wars. The Interstate War Data correct these errors and update the data to 2007. The paper also works through some of the complex coding issues in creating a wars data set, and it also discusses how some difficult wars were classified. Quality war data are critical for contemporary international relations research.

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