What is civil war?

Instructions

  • For the data, right-click, “save/download file as…”
  • Open the data
  • Complete all of the tasks associated with that data and keep track of your answers / images
  • Once you are done, go on Canvas and answer the questions related to the assignment
    • the Canvas assignment is timed; if you open it prior to completing the tasks you will run out of time

Skills used:

  • Sorting data
  • Counting categories
  • Cross-tabs
  • Creating variables

My awkward Google Sheets video tutorials are here

Warning

You must complete all of the tasks here BEFORE opening the Canvas quiz; otherwise, you will run out of time!

Data

You’re going to work with the data from the Kalyvas and Balcells article we read. The dataset contains information on major civil wars around the world for a select time period.

Variable Description
countryname Country where civil war takes place
year/month_start Year/month war began
year/month_end Year/month war ended (if at all)
conflict_name Name of conflict
region World region
gdp_capita GDP per capita (logged)
rough_terrain Percent of country covered in rough terrain
military_personnel_percapita Military personnel, in thousands
marxist Is rebellion Marxist?
technologyrebellion What kind of civil war is it?
ethnicwar Is this an ethnic civil war?

Questions

Using the dataset, answer the following questions:

  1. Choose a civil war of each type in the dataset and look it up on Wikipedia. Provide a non-technical, 2 sentence description of each war. (total = 3 wars, 2 sentences each). (2 points)

  2. Sort the data. Which country had the largest army per capita involved in a civil war? (1 point)

  1. Count the number of civil wars by region. Which region has the highest number of recorded civil wars? (1 point)
  1. Cross-tabulate the number of civil wars across warfare technology and whether or not it’s an ethnic conflict. How many civil wars are both “conventional” and ethnically motivated? (1 point)
  1. Create a variable that tells you how long each civil war has lasted, using only the years column (year ended - year started. Note: don’t worry about civil wars that don’t have a start or end date, you can ignore this issue). In which country did the THIRD longest lasting civil war take place? (1 point)
  1. Filter this analysis down so you’re only looking at Latin America. What is the SECOND longest conflict in this region? (1 point)

  1. We we will frequently talk about civil wars “starting” and “ending” in this class, but figuring out exactly when this happens is tricky. If you were to design a rule for deciding when a civil war has begun, what would that rule be? What would you have to observe, exactly, to say that a war has broken out? (3 points)

    1. describe your rule, make it as specific as possible. For example: “We can say that a civil war has begun when X, Y, and Z happens…”

    2. Identify some “edge cases” that will cause trouble for that rule. 4-5 sentences.