Review of The Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (1997): The Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project

The Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED) is a project created by Clionadh Raleigh (University of Sussex) that is operating as a non-profit, non-governmental organization since 2014 (1). The ACLED is a disaggregated data collection listing political violence and protest events around the world (ACLED 2019: 8), covering the timespan from 1997 to the present day (6). The ACLED research team defines political violence as: "[…] the use of force by a group with a political purpose or motivation, or with distinct political effects." (ACLED 2019: 8). The dataset was designed to provide a comprehensive overview of political disorder around the world (ACLED 2019: 8). As of summer 2024, the data collection is continuing, with the dataset consistently being reviewed and updated on a weekly basis. For the Europe and Central Asia region covered by Discuss Data, the dataset contains 400.000+ entries. The Discuss Data relevant country coverage begins in 2018 and includes the following countries: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan (ACLED 2019: 3). Which together total around 236.000 entries. The data review contains a link leading to the official ACLED website from which the dataset, as well as additional information about the dataset in the form of a codebook and other descriptive texts are available for download. The download of the dataset requires a free registration on the ACLED website.