xxixAcknowledgments
First and foremost, I thank the many graduate and undergraduate students who have
worked with me during the past nine years to generate the data and narratives pro-
vided here. There were many students, but two especially stand out. Steve Miller,
now at Clemson University, and Erin Little, about to graduate from the University
of Alabama in political science, both went far beyond anyone’s conception of what
a good student should be. Steve collected much of the original data and wrote draft
narratives of many of the most difficult-to-code disputes. Erin has worked tirelessly
on finding and developing the particular incidents that took place within each conflict
and, in turn, confirming the original coding of dispute cases. Our coauthored work
in International Studies Quarterly also provided the underlying data for the codings
described here.
As will be obvious from just the introductory chapter of this book, my work would
have never been possible without the data produced by scholars associated with the
Correlates of War Project (CoW) and J. David Singer at the University of Michigan.
CoW literally invented the data that everyone uses to study international conflict.
More than that, the scholars currently associated with the project have demonstrated
unwavering dedication to keeping the MID dataset one of the best resources in Inter-
national Relations. I would especially like to note, too, that Zeev Maoz, current direc-
tor of the project, has always been a supporter of our efforts and of more and better
data generally. Zeev even hosted a weekend conference in the spring 2015, which
provided an opportunity for Glenn Palmer, Scott Bennett, Vito D’Orazio, Matthew
Lane, and Michael Kenwick to critique our suggested changes to the existing MID
cases and our treatment of the dataset. Their feedback has been invaluable, and I thank
everyone involved.
Much of the work I have performed on the data that formed the basis for the
narratives was generously supported by the National Science Foundation (Awards
#0923406 and #1260492). These grants provided funds for undergraduate and
graduate student researchers, and this effectively led to the start of many to careers in
political science. I thank the program officers at NSF, especially Brian Humes, Tim
Nokken, Lee Walker, and Brian Schaffner.
On a more personal note, my wife, Julia, has always supported my work—more
than even she knows. My children, too, always make life loving and fun. Doug, Mary,