Political Science 203: Introduction to Politics – Fall 2010 – Violence, Occupation, and Territorial Sovereignty – Example Research Project .

• Question: What is the impact of occupation on levels of internal political violence for both sovereign and contested territories.
• Variables:
  • Dependent Variable:
    • Internal political violence.
  • Independent Variables:
    • Occupation.
      • Occupied – Yes/No.
      • Number of “foreign” military personnel inside territorial boundaries.
    • Economic Development.
    • Religion.
• Case Selection Approach: MDSD. Most Different Systems Design.
  • Why? Random generation from in class discussion, Professor’s preference (more intrinsically interesting – used MDSD in previous and current research), theoretical robustness.
• Cases:
  • States:
    • Lebanon.
    • Sri Lanka.
    • Kyrgyzstan.
  • Territories:
    • Tibet.
    • Kashmir.
    • Palestinian Territories.
• Quantitative Component to Research Project.
  • Example of Excel spreadsheet , Iraq US and Coalition fatalities and wounded.
    • Excel spread sheet.
  • Sources for data:
    • CIA World Fact Book.
    • OECD Statistics Portal.
    • United Nations Statistics Division.
    • US Census Bureau – International Statistics.
    • ***SIPRI Facts on International Relations and Security Trends (FIRST) Data Portal.
      • Sponsors:
        • SIPRI.
        • ISN.
    • EuGene: Expected Utility Generation and Management Program.
      • Cross-National Comparative and Global Data, 1816-2000.
      • List of variables available on countries covering 1816-2000.
    • LORANOW.
    • Harvard/MIT Data Center.
    • University of Michigan – ICPSR.
    • Political Instability Task Force (formerly knows as State Failure Task Force).
      • Phase V articles.
      • Phase III Dataset.
        • Note: Very large (10mb) Excel file. Original data in ASCII .zip file.
        • Dataset dictionary.

Last Update: 11/20/2012.