About the Author

Jeffrey S. Dixon received his BA in International Relations and Political Science/History from Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota. He received his PhD in Political Science from Rice University in Houston, Texas, writing his dissertation on the consequences of third-party military intervention on civil war outcomes. He has published articles on the causes of civil wars, how civil wars end, and the duration of civil wars. He is currently Distinguished Graduate Faculty and Associate Professor of Political Science at Texas A&M University–Central Texas and co-host of the Correlates of War Civil War Dataset. 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).

Reviews

"...The first two chapters introduce the reader to the methodology utilized in the work. ...Of particular importance are the distinctions that differentiate between civil, regional, and inter-communal wars. ....The heart of the work is found in the remaining six chapters, entitled "Intrastate Wars in North America," "Intrastate Wars in South America," "Intrastate Wars in Europe," "Intrastate Wars in the Middle East and North Africa,"  "Intrastate Wars in Asia and Oceania," "Intrastate Wars in Sub-Saharan Africa." More than 400 conflicts are covered, beginning with the First Caucasus War of 1818 to 1822 to the ongoing Ukraine Separatists War that erupted in 2014. ...Since information about many of the conflicts included in this work is hard to locate, academic and large public libraries should definitely consider acquiring this work, especially if their constituencies include historians or political scientists."
*American Reference Books Annual*

"...In addition to a clear narrative on each conflict, the authors list the participants, dates, sizes of military forces, deaths on each side, who initiated the conflict, and its outcome.  In true scholarly fashion, details on how coding rules were applied in each case are provided, and an entire chapter is devoted to describing how variables are defined.  Exquisitely indexed and well referenced, the work offers a unique perspective on warfare....Summing Up: Highly recommended. All academic levels; general readers."
*CHOICE*