Toward realistic computational models of civil wars

In Paper prepared for presentation at the Annual Meeting of the American Political.
This paper reports on our ongoing efforts to build increasingly accurate computational models of civil wars, and sketches a computational research program for this purpose. Because our research efforts are still very much work in progress, we focus on methodological problems and developments rather than presenting new substantive results. We propose solutions to the conceptual and methodological obstacles that stand in the way of progress. In particular, we suggest ways to integrate data generated in geographic information systems (GIS) with computational models based on a new agent‐based platform called GROWLab. A number of data projects supporting these efforts are described including Geo‐Referencing of Ethnic Groups (GREG) and Expert Survey of Ethnic Groups (ESEG).
Cederman, Lars-Erik, and Luc Girardin. 2007. “Toward Realistic Computational Models of Civil Wars.” In Paper prepared for presentation at the Annual Meeting of the American Political.
@inproceedings{toward-realistic-computational-models-of-civil-wars,
   author = {Cederman, Lars-Erik and Girardin, Luc},
   title = {Toward realistic computational models of civil wars},
   year = {2007},
   publisher = {Paper prepared for presentation at the Annual Meeting of the American Political},
   abstract = {This paper reports on our ongoing efforts to build increasingly accurate computational models of civil wars, and sketches a computational research program for this purpose. Because our research efforts are still very much work in progress, we focus on methodological problems and developments rather than presenting new substantive results. We propose solutions to the conceptual and methodological obstacles that stand in the way of progress. In particular, we suggest ways to integrate data generated in geographic information systems (GIS) with computational models based on a new agent-based platform called GROWLab. A number of data projects supporting these efforts are described including Geo-Referencing of Ethnic Groups (GREG) and Expert Survey of Ethnic Groups (ESEG).},
   pdf = {http://www.icr.ethz.ch/publications/cederman2007towards.pdf}
}