Title : Force and Ambiguity: evaluating sources for cross-national research - the case of military interventions

Working Paper No :  50 (series 2)

Author(s) :  Francisco Gutierrez Sanin and Andrea Gonzalez Pena

Date :   June 2009

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This paper discusses the analytical problems associated with the increasing use of numerical databases in quantitative cross-national research.  The authors highlight the need for a better understanding of the way these databases are constructed and their inherent ambiguities and they examine the existing critical literature.   The paper makes a case study of data on military interventions and analyses the problems of classification that the authors identified in several well-known databases.   The paper concludes that more attention should be given to modelling uncertainty rather than attempting to achieve clear-cut precision.