Anatomy of Civil Conflict
As part of the Anatomy of Resistance Campaigns (ARC) project, the first objective of my PhD work will be partaking in the construction of the ARC data set, which sets out to map violent and non-violent resistance campaigns. The dataset focuses on the organizations who are active in resistance campaigns and the relations that exist between these groups, using event data to establish participation. Mapping these connections between the different organizations will improve upon previous civil resistance data (such as NAVCO or ACLED) by untangling (disaggregating) how the broader campaigns are formed and organized. In addition to inter campaign relations, we have variables measuring female participation, variables on leadership, relationship with the government, social base, organization goals and size. In its first iteration, the dataset will cover Africa, due to its large number of well-covered countries and resistance campaigns. The time period covered will be 1990 to 2017. The inclusion criteria is a named organization with maximalist claims (demands for regime change, secession or democratization) who engages in some form of active resistance, such as protests, strikes or acts of violent resistance, in a given year. Personally, I am responsible for coding parts of western Africa. Mali, Niger and Algeria among others.
Once we have compiled the data for Africa, I will apply it to research questions related to civil conflicts, cross border rebel groups and post-conflict reconstruction.