Received: 15 September, 2003. Accepted: 16 October, 2003.

SUMMARY

This paper provides overview of the important projectsconcerned with development of databases on conflicts, crises and similar political eventsand those dealing with the structural characteristics of nation-states. The differentdatabases are usually differently conceptualized, even when they describe the samephenomenon. Different conceptualization of the problem leads to different operationaldefinitions, and eventually to different coding rules. Therefore, the researcher intendingto use existing data for the purpose of statistical analysis or modelling the socialprocesses can became lost browsing the multitude of different datasets. In this overview,the short descriptions of important data-gathering project include information on theinstitution where the project is placed, its principal investigators, year span and numberof cases it includes. In the end all mentioned databases are classified according the focus(event/structure) and the level (nation-state/international relations) of observation.

KEY WORDS

Database, conflict, political event, nation-state

CLASSIFICATION