Resort to War : A Data Guide to Inter-State, Extra-State, Intra-State, and Non-State Wars, 1816-2007

The benchmark reference for understanding the phenomenon of war

What do we know about war?  This much-anticipated reference book analyzes more than a thousand wars waged from 1816 to 2008 using authoritative, highly standardized, and systematic coding methods from the Correlates of War Project, which aims to reveal the underlying patterns and causes of war. Resort to War lists and categorizes all violent conflicts with 1,000 or more battle deaths and provides an insightful narrative for each struggle. The volume distinguishes between traditional interstate war, the phenomenon of extra-state war as evidenced by the Al-Qaeda– USA conflagration, intra-state war, and the new category of nonstate ethnic wars. After explaining how to determine what a "state" is and how to classify different types of wars, the authors describe each encounter and highlight major patterns across eras and regions, identifying which categories of war are becoming more or less prevalent over time, and revealing connections between the different types of war. Resort to War, the second title in the Correlates of War Series, is a definitive source for students and researchers examining patterns of international conflict; it is the essential guide to the data, trends, and context of these violent encounters.

Key Features

• A unique study of the patterns of war
• Highlights different patterns of interstate, intra-state, and extra-state conflicts
• Authoritative data, newly discovered trends, insightful narrative

Meredith Reid Sarkees is a long-time affiliate of the Correlates of War (COW) Project, having worked with COW founder J. David Singer for many years. She has served as host or co-host of the datasets on inter-state, extra-state, intra-state, and non-state wars for over twenty years and has published a number of articles about the trends in warfare. A handbook on all of the COW wars, Resort to War 1816–2007, was written by Sarkees and Frank Whelon Wayman. Sarkees also co-edited Advancing Peace Research: Leaving Traces, Selected Articles by J. David Singer with Jody Lear and Diane Macaulay as a testament to the significance of the COW project and Singer’s work. Sarkees’s other research area focuses upon women’s leadership and the status of women in both academia and the realm of international relations. She co-authored with Nancy E. McGlen a groundbreaking study of the women serving in American foreign policy institutions, Women in Foreign Policy. Sarkees currently serves as president of Global Women’s Leadership in International Security (GWLIS).

Frank Wayman is professor of political science at the University of Michigan – Dearborn, president of the Faculty Research Club at the University of Michigan, and a long-time associate of the Correlates of War Project.