Post-Cold War complex humanitarian emergencies: Introducing a new dataset

This article introduces an original dataset of post-Cold War complex humanitarian emergencies. The dataset identifies recent instances of war, atrocity crimes, one-sided violence and communal conflict with the most disruptive consequences for civilians. In doing so, it complements a growing body of research and data on civilians’ experiences in war and other forms of violent conflict. While much recent research examines the causes of intentional violence against civilians, this data is likely to be especially useful for investigating questions that require comparison between conflicts on the basis of their human consequences, whether intended or not. Notably, this includes research into the politics of humanitarian action. The article lays out the motivation behind the project, discusses the criteria for identifying complex emergencies and the data-collection process, provides a brief overview of the data and offers some ideas for possible applications. As an example of how the data might be employed, it uses them to demonstrate the importance of humanitarian needs over US political interests in the allocation of US disaster assistance during conflict situations.