New findings from conflict archives

Abstract

As they pursue information and deploy violence during conflict, combatants compose, catalog, and preserve a wide variety of records, such as memos, investigative reports, and communiqués. In an increasing number of post-conflict scenarios, these records are being archived and released publicly, quickly becoming a critical new source of data for studies of peace and conflict. The objective of this special issue is to advance a new research agenda focused on the systematic analysis of conflict archives. The contributors each spent significant time collecting original data from often-dusty archives and, in many cases, developed new methodologies for sampling, cataloging, and analyzing historical documents. Their findings reveal how violence simultaneously shapes and is shaped by factors that remain largely unobservable using more conventional sources of conflict data, including clandestine mobilization, bureaucratic accountability, and political identities. By considering these studies in relation to one another, this introduction aims to provide readers with a comprehensive understanding of field research strategies and analytical techniques for studying original data from conflict archives. We conclude that while archival data are subject to their own biases that must be considered, this research agenda addresses significant limitations associated with traditional data sources and, in turn, pushes scholars to rethink many of the mechanisms underlying the causes and dynamics of peace and conflict.

Type of Violence and Ingroup Identity: Evidence From the Spanish Civil War

“…In line with most of the conflict and historical studies (Balcells and Sullivan 2018), I acknowledge this data is not flawless (Zubiaga Arana 2018). Section D of the Online Appendix offers a detailed discussion about the potential limitations and extensions of the data on selective violence and its operationalization.…”

International Sports Events and Repression in Autocracies: Evidence from the 1978 FIFA World Cup

“…Third, by theorizing the influence of foreign media attention on the survival strategies of illiberal regimes, we inform debates about international naming and shaming (e.g., DeMeritt 2012; Keck and Sikkink 1998; Strezhnev, Kelley, and Simmons 2021), press freedom and the escalation of violence (Carey and Gohdes 2021; Carey, González, and Mitchell 2021; Whitten-Woodring 2009), regime propaganda (e.g., Gläßel and Paula 2020; King, Pan, and Roberts 2017; Roberts 2018), and preemptive repression (e.g., Danneman and Ritter 2014; Dragu and Przeworski 2019; Ritter and Conrad 2016; Truex 2019). Finally, the article complements a growing literature on the microdynamics of state violence (e.g., Balcells and Sullivan 2018; Hassan and O’Mealia 2018; Osorio, Schubiger, and Weintraub 2018; Rozenas, Schutte, and Zhukov 2017; Scharpf and Gläßel 2020).…”

Social Cohesion and Community Displacement in Armed Conflict: Evidence from Palestinian Villages in the 1948 War

“…Archival materials likely provide better coverage, and information "closer to the ground truth," than data produced by monitors and from memory. 82 The Village Files include contemporary and…”