Armed Conflict Database

‘Distinctively packaged and presented.... Authoritative.... easy to use....As a real-time product, its information is regularly refreshed, in some cases daily, compared to the stagnant and sometimes stale material found in other databases... Recommended for academic and special libraries supporting scholarly research in international conflict resolution, peace studies, and international affairs generally.’ 
Reference Reviews, Issue 19:1

In order to provide up-to-date and objective information on conflict-related matters from around the world, the IISS has developed the Armed Conflict Database (ACD). Compiled by the IISS Transnational Threats and Political Risk Programme, the ACD provides an interactive and user-friendly source of information on 70 armed conflicts.

The ACD covers international and internal armed conflicts, as well as terrorism. It offers year-on-year analysis of conflicts, their political status, number of fatalities and weapons used. It also covers current events, conflict backgrounds and timelines. Each conflict is analysed in detail under the following headings:

• Political Review: analyses the latest noteworthy political trends and developments within the conflict.

• Military and Security Review: offers the latest military and security developments, information on parties involved in the conflict, including non-state armed groups, as well as procurements, arms acquisitions, major offensives, changes in tactics and other security concerns.

• Human Security Review: maintains a check on the human cost of the conflict. This feature informs the user of both the total number of fatalities in the conflict, and the number of fatalities in a specific year, and information about refugees and Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs). This review also provides information on other humanitarian indicators of conflict such as unemployment, lack of access to natural resources, ethnic and religious strife, and basic infrastructure.

• Annual Update: offers a comprehensive review of the main events during the year, including military and human security developments. A fact box covers the type of conflict, its parties, current status, the number of its fatalities and the weapons used. With the fact box comes an update of the year’s trends and incidents relating to all features of the conflict, including the status and type of conflict.

• Historical Background: provides a researched historical background paper to the conflict, placing recent developments into perspective by explaining the underlying causes and tension behind the fighting.

• Timeline: presents a constantly updated timeline relating to the conflict. When accessed, the user is automatically transferred to the current date, but by scrolling the user can quickly gain an insight into recent and historic incidents and developments.

• Links: provides a direct route to other IISS publications, external sources and useful official documents, peace accords and agreements, as well as relevant Security Council resolutions.

When searching for specific information the user can either browse through the different year-on-year reports and fact sheets online or generate reports. The ACD has a built-in-function which can generate targeted reports on conflict data back to 1997 and correlates reports from various years, conflicts, regions and topics. Variables can be isolated or combined and the results are easily presented, either on-screen in a table or when downloaded.

Timelines are updated on a weekly basis, reports on a quarterly basis, and the annual analysis is published each February.

For editorial enquiries, please contact: 

Hanna Ucko
Conflict Management Analyst; ACD Coordinator
Email: Click here to contact Hanna Ucko
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7395 9135 
Fax:+44 (0) 20 7395 9183