In the article ‘How to stop the fighting, sometimes', the Economist presents a nuanced history of how civil wars are initiated, sustained and brought to an end.
The Economist draws on the latest data, and presents a statistically based overview of armed conflict since World War II to the present, with state-of-the-art graphics. The article cites Scott Gates, the Director of PRIO's Centre for the Study of Civil War (2003-12). Gates and others in PRIO’s Conflict Trends research milieu provided much of the background for the article, which also cites other PRIO associates, including James Fearon and Kristian Skrede Gleditsch, and it applies data produced in collaboration with the University of Uppsala. The article is a must read for anybody interested in the dynamics of war and peace.
The article is available online: 'How to stop the fighting, sometimes'
The UCDP/PRIO dataset is also mentioned in another article in the same issue, titled 'Defining conflicts: What makes it a war?'.
