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Resources on Military and Conflict
This database is maintained by the Global Investigative Journalism Network (GIJN) and is one of many resources available at our Resource Center.
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| Source | Title | Item Type | Description | URL |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| OpenSanctions | OpenSanctions | Database | OpenSanctions is an international database of persons and companies of political, criminal, or economic interest. The project combines the sanctions lists, databases of politically-exposed persons, and other information about persons in the public interest into a single, easy-to-use dataset. This makes it easy to cross-check databases for conflicts of interests and signs of illicit activity, screen potential customers and partners in international dealings, track political conflicts and compare national sanctions policies, and integrate the sanctions and persons of interest info into existing data products. | https://www.opensanctions.org/datasets/ |
| Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) | SIPRI Databases | Databases | Based in Stockholm, SIPRI is an independent research institute specializing in conflict, armaments, arms control, and disarmament. It maintains five databases: Multilateral Peace Operations; Military Expenditure; Arms Transfers; Arms Embargo; and the National Reports. The data is based on open source information and annual SIPRI questionnaires, and can be downloaded. | https://www.sipri.org/databasesSIPRI Databases |
| Small Arms Survey | Databases | Information; Database; Reference Tools | Based at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva, Small Arms Survey provides interactive maps and charts on armed violence and includes a downloadable database. It also links to international reports on armed conflicts, stockpiles (state and civilian), and arms transfers (authorized and illicit). The website also provides the Transparency Barometer, which helps gauge the veracity of state-submitted arms data, and tools designed to identify the type and origin of weapons and munitions. These include the Ammunition Tracing Kit, Small Arms ID Cards, and the Weapons ID Database, which was developed with the support of the UK Royal Armouries and is designed to help researchers accurately identify weapons by using visual information. | https://www.smallarmssurvey.org/databases |
| Conflict Armament Research | iTRACE Conflict Arms Database | Database | This European Union-funded database offers verified, precise information on diverted weapons and ammunition recovered from conflict zones, including manufacturer details, images, and satellite maps for location. Sources of reports are indicated and include in-field research. Free registration is required. | https://itrace.conflictarm.com |
| Peace Research Institute Oslo | PRIO | Information; Databases; Expert Sources | This Oslo-based independent research institute has a myriad of active projects and experts on specific interdisciplinary subjects, as well as general conflict trends. The website includes links to downloadable datasets on armed conflicts (with time periods ranging from 1946 to 2018) and arms data. | https://www.prio.org/data |
| Norwegian Initiative on Small Arms Transfers (NISAT) | Small Arms Trade Database | Database | The NISAT database provides information on transfers of small arms, light weapons, as well as their parts and accessories from variety of sources, but relies heavily on official government data such as customs records. The database contains millions of detailed records on arms traded between 250 states and territories from 1962 - 2015. | http://nisat.prio.org/Trade-Database/ |
| United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs | UN Report on Military Expenditures | Database | Self-reported military spending by UN member states since 1981. | http://www.un.org/disarmament/convarms/Milex/ |
| United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs | The UN Register of Conventional Arms | Database | This UN database provides self-reported information about imports and exports of major weapons system by country and year. Links at the top of their page provide access to other conventional arms databases, including Small Arms and Light Weapons, Explosive Ordnance, and National Military Holdings. | https://www.un.org/disarmament/convarms/register/ |
| US Department of State | World Military Expenditures and Arms Transfers | Database | The country and region-specific reports provide statistics on annual military expenditures, arms transfers, armed forces personnel, select economic data, and military-economic ratio indicators for 170 countries. The data, which dates back to 1964 and is sourced from various indices listed in the report, is accompanied by analyses and highlights. The latest WMEAT report was published in 2021. | https://www.state.gov/world-military-expenditures-and-arms-transfers/ |
| The World Bank | Military Expenditure (% of GDP) | Database | The WDI database can be queried by country/countries and year/time for data on military expenditure (as percentages of government budget, GDP, and local currency totals), number of peacekeepers (military observers, police, troops), arms imports, and arms exports (arms trade data is sourced from SIPRI). | https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/MS.MIL.XPND.GD.ZS?fbclid=IwAR2cNYKUdJovQu9_1c6Rzqfs9EIFSspCGklGcERMblViMmXRsTjQufCLgD8 |
| International Crisis Group | Crisis Group | Information; Expert Sources | This Brussels-based nonprofit produces reports and analyses by region and country-specific conflicts. The website is a handy resource for information and expert sources/analysts. | http://www.crisisgroup.org/ |
| The Correlates of War Project | COW | Databases | Currently overseen by directors from Penn State University and University of California, Davis, COW makes available academically-vetted, sourced datasets about wars, militarized conflicts, formal alliances, territorial changes, bilateral trade, etc. The degree of data currency depends on the particular dataset. | https://correlatesofwar.org/data-sets/ |
| Heidelberg Institute for International Conflict Research | Conflict Barometer | Information; Databases; Expert Sources | This Germany-based conflict research institute publishes an annual Conflict Barometer quantitative report that measures conflict intensity and provides information on weapons, personnel, casualties, refugees and IDPs and destruction. Downloadable datasets are available on political conflicts by year; conflicts over natural resources; dyadic data on interstate conflicts; and the disaggregated conflict dataset. Staff list is a good resource for regional expert sources. | https://hiik.de/?lang=en |
| Center for International Policy | Security Assistance Monitor | Database | Security Assistance Monitor is a program of the Washington DC-based Center for International Policy, a nonprofit public think tank that advocates for foreign policy oversight. The program provides data on US security and defense worldwide since 2000, sourced to publicly available information. Datasets are available for military and police aid, economic aid, training programs, exercises, exchanges, bases, deployments, and arms sales and may be searched by country, region, program and assistance type. | https://securityassistance.org/ |
| Incore International Conflict Research Institute | Ethnic Conflict Research Digest | Search Engine; Expert Sources | Managed by University of Ulster in Northern Ireland, this digest publishes peer reviews of recently published books, journal articles, and research papers on ethnic conflict. Searchable by subject, year, and author, this can be a valuable source of archival information on a specific conflict and a resource for expert sources. However, information in the database only covers 1994 - 2009. | http://www.incore.ulst.ac.uk/services/ecrd/new/search.html |
| European Commission | Global Conflict Risk Index | Database | Based on quantitative indicators from open sources, the index scores structural conditions in each country to estimate the statistical risk of violent conflict in the next one to four years. The GCRI covers 22 variables in six dimensions (social, economic, security, political, geographical/environmental, demographic) reflecting structural conditions correlated to the occurrence of violent conflict. The GCRI uses historical data since 1991 to train the model. Conflict risk scores relate to the following types of conflict: (1) Any conflict, (2) State-based conflict, (3) Non-state conflict and (4) One-sided violence. | https://drmkc.jrc.ec.europa.eu/initiatives-services/global-conflict-risk-index#documents/1059/list |
| US Department of State | Office of Global Criminal Justice | Information | This US federal agency covers issues related to war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide. Resources include remarks, releases, and reports; Transitional Justice Policy Papers; International Criminal Tribunals; Materials on atrocities; US Department of Homeland Security War Crimes Unit; and the US Justice Department Human Rights & Special Prosecutions Section. | https://www.state.gov/bureaus-offices/under-secretary-for-civilian-security-democracy-and-human-rights/office-of-global-criminal-justice/ |
| European Defence Agency | Publications and Data | Publications, Factsheets | The European Defence Agency collects "defence data on an annual basis which is provided by the Ministries of Defence of the Agency’s 27 Member States. EDA acts as the custodian of the data and publishes the aggregated figures in its annual Defence Data Reports. EDA’s defence data publications provide key indicators such as total defence expenditure, defence investment, collaborative investment and spending on research and technology. A complete dataset is available since 2006." | https://eda.europa.eu/publications-and-data?fbclid=IwAR1RLUHkP-aX2kmYL0Us_Iub7FULyH-P_swDSzjbp6iwztiOXvbnb3dL0sI |
| European Commission | European Defence Industrial Development Programme (EDIDP) | Fact Sheets and Online Resources | The European Defence Industrial Development Programme (EDIDP) is "an industrial programme of the EU supporting the competitiveness and innovation capacity of the Union’s defence industry." The website contains useful fact sheets and information on this EU grant programme targeting capability development and co-financing the joint development of (new and upgrading of existing) defence products and technologies. | https://defence-industry-space.ec.europa.eu/eu-defence-industry/european-defence-industrial-development-programme-edidp_en?fbclid=IwAR2I07U3twC1CsqiESJfHhlldqSjwr8p1b6BYlqBb54WqbA4GXaJV4aQhcE |
| European Union | The European Defence Fund (EDF) | Publications, Factsheets | Almost €8 billion is dedicated to the European Defence Fund for 2021-2027. "€2.7 billion to fund collaborative defence research and €5.3 billion euros to fund collaborative capability development projects complementing national contributions." This website provides more information on how this money is allocated along with who are the contractors. | https://defence-industry-space.ec.europa.eu/eu-defence-industry/european-defence-fund-edf_en?fbclid=IwAR0ZJSRkOuJJT2A69cZBDNQCQ_si4QHjS7HiMYR39TGY5x5bZF5z5YNnvf4 |
| Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO) | News & Documents | Documents, Factsheets | Another EU initiative aimed at bringing together the EU's defense industry. The projects developed cover areas such as training, land, maritime, air, cyber, and joint enablers. The website includes information on each of the PESCO projects. | https://www.pesco.europa.eu/?fbclid=IwAR0BEP1Y1J_YUE6u8Hbxak62ST-uD1B8Mr_SjuyJ8BkVb3bZJscuBHULN3s |
| Australian Strategic Policy Institute | The Cost of Defence Public Database | Database | This independent think-tank has collected databases "relating to the defence budget and defence spending that ASPI has accumulated since it was established in 2001. It aims to help researchers and organisations develop their own analysis and visualisations of the defence portfolio." The data is downloadable in spreadsheets. | https://www.aspi.org.au/cost-of-defence-database?fbclid=IwAR3S6PU4fP7jJLLBRKNH5rpdOQMWCBGH1Nykp1oWMKMqSzjnBOpCSP6a1GU |
| NATO | Information on Defence Expenditures | Databases | Since 1963, NATO publishes "an annual compendium of financial, personnel, and economic data for all member countries. Each year, updated tables with nations' defence expenditures are published on the NATO website in PDF and Excel format. The data includes: defence expenditure and GDP growth rates, defence expenditures as a percentage of GDP, defence expenditures and GDP per capita, defence expenditures by category, armed forces personnel strength." | https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/topics_49198.htm?fbclid=IwAR1ZNDzaRVinzOLwWLU4bkkiZ1yVLdbZ1-KBJD4qqa091V5vd4zTLLwdK5w |
| Columbia Law School Human Rights Institute | Security Force Monitor | Databases | A project of the Columbia Law School Human Rights Institute that works to make police, military, and other security forces around the world more transparent and accountable". It includes a database of the US Foreign Military Training and Assistance since 2001. The team has built a separate website WhoWasInCommand.com for a limited number of African, Middle Eastern, and Asian countries that contains data on units' organizational structure, command personnel, geographical footprint (such as bases and areas of operation), and their connections to allegations of human rights violations as documented and published by human rights organizations. Security Force Monitor provides research and analysis support to human rights advocates, journalists and others investigating human rights abuses committed by state security forces. | https://securityforcemonitor.org/data/?fbclid=IwAR1-21g7QQl8VysMhQDVSI5EJotErZqy2JoBZrWx0Xas1H-jhXMn_ezVwb0 |
| French National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies | Defence Industries Businesses Survey | Statistics | The French government publishes their data on the defense industry every three years. Last update: 2018. | https://www.insee.fr/en/metadonnees/source/serie/s2055?fbclid=IwAR17zTBbLgqn8dpUszcmA7Mtu4dL3RpWTUE4ON6gNZjBv_MIdT70XdHSPK8 |
| Eurostat | Government Expenditure on Defence | Statistics | Eurostat is the statistical office of the EU. It collects and publishes data on defence expenditure by country. | https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=Government_expenditure_on_defence&fbclid=IwAR3G2USGF1nQ1DEreC8oeUOq3kWXaqtSWhphlbbPkTadm0hLMsb0VQziuqc#:~:text=Expenditure%20on%20'defence'-,In%202020%2C%20'defence'%20expenditure%20amounted%20to%201.3%20%25%20of,(1.6%20%25%20of%20GDP) |
| New America | World of Drones | Information | The grant-supported research foundation has compiled open source information, including media reports, to create charts of global imports and exports of drones, and provide summaries of state and non-state actor drone capabilities. Last update: 2020. | http://securitydata.newamerica.net/world-drones.html |
| Geneva Declaration on Armed Violence and Development | Global Burden of Armed Violence | Information; Statistics; Expert Sources | The secretariat of the intergovernmental initiative adopted in 2006 publishes an annual report on Global Burden of Armed Violence. The website also provides country-level assessments and regional fact sheets with statistics and estimates related to violence. The website also links to projects, programs and organizations, which may serve as sources. Last update: 2015. | http://www.genevadeclaration.org/en/measurability/global-burden-of-armed-violence/global-burden-of-armed-violence-2015.html |
| International Criminal Court | Policy on Cultural Heritage | Report | This report includes the definition of crimes against cultural heritage often committed in the context of an international armed conflict. Last update: 2021. | https://www.icc-cpi.int/sites/default/files/itemsDocuments/20210614-otp-policy-cultural-heritage-eng.pdf |
| Program on Extremism | Capitol Hill Siege | Database | The Program on Extremism has launched a project to create a central database of court records related to the events of January 6, 2021. This page is updated as additional individuals are charged with criminal activities and new records are introduced into the criminal justice system. | https://extremism.gwu.edu/Capitol-Hill-Siege |
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