SGER: Conflict in Central and South Asia: Improving and Analyzing Data from Event Reporting

Ohio State University Research Foundation -Do Not Use, Columbus OH

Investigators

Abstract

SES-0140345 Principal Investigator: J. Craig Jenkins Institution: Ohio State University This Small Grant for Exploratory Research (SGER) provides funds to supplement the existing standard sources of international events data (primarily computerized content analyses of Reuters Business Briefs) with a field reporting system based on observers in seven Central and South Asian countries (Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgzstan and Pakistan). The field reporters are trained in a systematic event reporting format that captures many more conflict events than are reported in the Reuters sources and provides more comprehensive data for subsequent analyses. The grant would support the training of the field reporters, improve their infrastructure, and enlarge the geographic coverage of the reporting system. In addition, the PI will refine the computerized coding of the standard news reports to improve their reliability. Comparisons between the two sources will be made. The project will expand the systematic data collection of conflict events in an area of the world that has been under-reported in past conflict data files but has become an increasing area of internal and international conflict. The resulting publicly available data will increase our ability to test and refine theories of conflict, especially the relationships between internal and international conflict.