IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/compsc/v37y2020i1p106-129.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Security-Force Ethnicity (SFE) Project: Introducing a new dataset

Author

Listed:
  • Paul Lorenzo Johnson

    (US Air Force and US Strategic Command, USA)

  • Ches Thurber

    (Northern Illinois University, USA)

Abstract

The ethnic composition of state security forces is believed to have important effects on the dynamics of conflict processes, but data limitations have impeded our ability to test such hypotheses cross-nationally until now. To address this problem, the Security Force Ethnicity dataset provides time-series, group-level measures of the ethnic composition of military forces in the Middle East between 1946 and 2013. We draw on an extensive review of case studies and histories to produce unique ordinal codings for participation rates in the officer corps and in the rank and file. We demonstrate the utility of the data through empirical applications, examining the relationship between military ethnic composition and the incidence of coups and repression. Our findings illustrate the theoretical and empirical importance of disaggregating ethnic representation in the military from inclusion in other institutions of the state.

Suggested Citation

  • Paul Lorenzo Johnson & Ches Thurber, 2020. "The Security-Force Ethnicity (SFE) Project: Introducing a new dataset," Conflict Management and Peace Science, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 37(1), pages 106-129, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:compsc:v:37:y:2020:i:1:p:106-129
    DOI: 10.1177/0738894217709012
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0738894217709012
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0738894217709012?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. José G. Montalvo & Marta Reynal-Querol, 2005. "Ethnic Polarization, Potential Conflict, and Civil Wars," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 95(3), pages 796-816, June.
    2. Kristian S. Gleditsch & Michael D. Ward, 1999. "A revised list of independent states since the congress of Vienna," International Interactions, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(4), pages 393-413, October.
    3. Mcmahon, R. Blake & Slantchev, Branislav L., 2015. "The Guardianship Dilemma: Regime Security through and from the Armed Forces," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 109(2), pages 297-313, May.
    4. Selway, Joel Sawat, 2011. "The Measurement of Cross-cutting Cleavages and Other Multidimensional Cleavage Structures," Political Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 19(1), pages 48-65, January.
    5. Carter, David B. & Signorino, Curtis S., 2010. "Back to the Future: Modeling Time Dependence in Binary Data," Political Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 18(3), pages 271-292, July.
    6. Michael Makara, 2016. "Rethinking military behavior during the Arab Spring," Defense & Security Analysis, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 32(3), pages 209-223, September.
    7. Mcmahon, R. Blake & Slantchev, Branislav L., 2015. "The Guardianship Dilemma: Regime Security through and from the Armed Forces—ERRATUM," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 109(3), pages 636-636, August.
    8. Tsang, Eric W. K., 2014. "Old and New," Management and Organization Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 10(03), pages 390-390, November.
    9. Cameron S. Brown & Christopher J. Fariss & R. Blake McMahon, 2016. "Recouping after Coup-Proofing: Compromised Military Effectiveness and Strategic Substitution," International Interactions, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 42(1), pages 1-30, January.
    10. Lyall, Jason, 2010. "Are Coethnics More Effective Counterinsurgents? Evidence from the Second Chechen War," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 104(1), pages 1-20, February.
    11. Fearon, James D, 2003. "Ethnic and Cultural Diversity by Country," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 8(2), pages 195-222, June.
    12. José Garcia Montalvo & Marta Reynal-Querol, 2004. "Ethnic polarization, potential conflict and civil wars," Economics Working Papers 770, Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, revised Mar 2005.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Kyle L. Marquardt & Yoshiko M. Herrera, 2015. "Ethnicity as a Variable: An Assessment of Measures and Data Sets of Ethnicity and Related Identities," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 96(3), pages 689-716, September.
    2. Martin Ottmann, 2017. "Rebel constituencies and rebel violence against civilians in civil conflicts," Conflict Management and Peace Science, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 34(1), pages 27-51, January.
    3. Gisselquist, Rachel M. & McDoom, Omar Shahabudin, 2015. "The conceptualization and measurement ofethnic and religious divisions: categorical, temporal, and spatial dimensions with evidencefrom Mindanao, the Philippines," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 61993, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    4. Abel Escribà -Folch & Tobias Böhmelt & Ulrich Pilster, 2020. "Authoritarian regimes and civil–military relations: Explaining counterbalancing in autocracies," Conflict Management and Peace Science, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 37(5), pages 559-579, September.
    5. Omar Shahabudin McDoom & Rachel M. Gisselquist, 2016. "The Measurement of Ethnic and Religious Divisions: Spatial, Temporal, and Categorical Dimensions with Evidence from Mindanao, the Philippines," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 129(2), pages 863-891, November.
    6. Klaus Desmet & Ignacio Ortuño-Ortín & Romain Wacziarg, 2017. "Culture, Ethnicity, and Diversity," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 107(9), pages 2479-2513, September.
    7. Omar McDoom & Rachel M. Gisselquist S., 2015. "The conceptualization and measurement of ethnic and religious divisions: Categorical, temporal, and spatial dimensions with evidence from Mindanao, the Philippines," WIDER Working Paper Series 022, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    8. Klaus Desmet & Ignacio Ortuño-Ortín & Romain Wacziarg, 2009. "The political economy of ethnolinguistic cleavages," Working Papers 2009-17, Instituto Madrileño de Estudios Avanzados (IMDEA) Ciencias Sociales.
    9. Gerring, John & Thacker, Strom C. & Lu, Yuan & Huang, Wei, 2015. "Does Diversity Impair Human Development? A Multi-Level Test of the Diversity Debit Hypothesis," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 166-188.
    10. Cemal Eren Arbatlı & Quamrul H. Ashraf & Oded Galor & Marc Klemp, 2020. "Diversity and Conflict," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 88(2), pages 727-797, March.
    11. Matija Kovacic & Claudio Zoli, 2021. "Ethnic distribution, effective power and conflict," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 57(2), pages 257-299, August.
    12. Janus, Thorsten & Riera-Crichton, Daniel, 2015. "Economic shocks, civil war and ethnicity," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 115(C), pages 32-44.
    13. Victor Ginsburgh & Shlomo Weber, 2020. "The Economics of Language," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 58(2), pages 348-404, June.
    14. Joan Esteban & Laura Mayoral & Debraj Ray, 2012. "Ethnicity and Conflict: An Empirical Study," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 102(4), pages 1310-1342, June.
    15. Hodler, Roland & Valsecchi, Michele & Vesperoni, Alberto, 2021. "Ethnic geography: Measurement and evidence," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 200(C).
    16. Timothy Besley & Torsten Persson, 2011. "Pillars of Prosperity: The Political Economics of Development Clusters," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, number 9624.
    17. Joseph Flavian Gomes, 2020. "The health costs of ethnic distance: evidence from sub-Saharan Africa," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 25(2), pages 195-226, June.
    18. Opoku Adabor & Enock Kojo Ayesu, 2024. "Ethnic heterogeneity and healthcare utilization: The mediating role of poverty in Ghana," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 22(4), pages 1655-1682, December.
    19. Ager, Philipp & Brückner, Markus, 2013. "Cultural diversity and economic growth: Evidence from the US during the age of mass migration," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 76-97.
    20. Sundar Ponnusamy & Mohammad Abbas Hakeem, 2024. "Ethnic inequality and public health," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 33(1), pages 41-58, January.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:compsc:v:37:y:2020:i:1:p:106-129. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://pss.la.psu.edu/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.