About the project

Despite abundant and controversial debates on so-called humanitarian military interventions there is yet little empirical knowledge about these operations and their effects due to a lack of systematized data.

This project has compiled a documented and tabular dataset along with detailed case descriptions about all humanitarian military interventions since the Second World War. The project presents central aspects of these interventions, such as the violent emergency prior to the intervention, the authorizing mandates and the intervening states or international organizations, their declared goals and activities, and developments in the target country during and after the intervention.

In a next step, the project examines the average effect of humanitarian military interventions on the intensity and duration of violent emergencies. Moreover, it analyses under which conditions humanitarian military interventions increase or reduce the extent of deadly violence in the target countries.

Dr. Matthias Dembinski

E-Mail: dembinski@prif.org
Dr. Thorsten Gromes

E-Mail: gromes@prif.org

Acknowledgements

We thank the German Foundation for Peace Research for funding the compilation of the dataset (FP 02/14 – PS 01/12-2013) and the construction of this website (VTP 03/2017-02/04-2017).

We are grateful for the work of our research assistants and interns at PRIF: Charlotte Felbinger, Delina Goxho, Xenija Grusha, Julia Haase, Raphael Haines, Joshua Marinescu-Pasoi, Heinrich Nachtsheim, Sofie Röhrig, Chris Ross, Julia Schaefermeyer, Anna Schwarz, Maike Wäscher, Lisa Weis, Theresa Werner, and Svenja Windisch.

The following students completed the research seminar ‘Humanitarian Military Interventions’ at the University of Frankfurt and contributed to the compilation: Hande Abay, Mira Ballmaier, Charlotte Brandes, Jan Dannheisig, Christian Diegelmann, Lena Diekmann, Markus Drews, Felix Haeckel, Fionn Harnischfeger, Lara Heckmann, Katharina Hemming, Kevin Horbach, Tanja Jacob, Svenja Jandrasits, Teresa Leiendecker, Lela Lindena, Vanessa Müller, Edina Pasztor, Christian Pogies, Alexander Quint, Julia Schaefermeyer, Paul Scherer, Laura Schelenz, Karolina Schmid, Anja Siegel, Jens Stappenbeck, Maximilian Stoll, Aurélie Wallaschkowski, and Marie Wittenius.

Moreover, we thank Matthias Basedau, Martin Binder, Anita Gohdes, and Peter Rudolf for valuable comments on the project during a workshop at PRIF in October 2014.