Digging for Peace: Using Machine Learning Methods for Assessing International Conflict Databases

Abstract

. In the last decade research in Machine Learning has developed a variety of powerful tools for inductive learning and data analysis. On the other hand, research in International Relations has developed a variety of different conflict databases that are mostly analyzed with classical statistical methods. As these databases are in general of a symbolic nature, they provide an interesting domain for application of Machine Learning algorithms. This paper gives a short overview of available conflict databases and subsequently concentrates on the application of machine learning methods for the analysis and interpretation of the CONFMAN mediation dataset. 1 INTRODUCTION While enormous amounts of money have been and still are spent on the development of AI methods for military purposes, practically no effort is undertaken to use these methods to support the prevention and termination of conflicts and wars. The work presented in this paper is motivated by the deliberation that this area of re...