Authors: Cynthia McMeekin and Emily Acevedo
Department of Political Science
California State University, Los Angeles
Los Angeles CA 90032
Email addresses:
Cynthia.McMeekin@calstatela.edu
Emily.Acevedo@calstatelala.edu
This module is designed to introduce students to the study of war and basic statistics. No prior knowledge of statistics is necessary. This module serves as a primer in using data to analyze war. It uses an integrative approach that allows students to practice analyzing war data as they learn about how war is defined, the levels of analysis used in the study of war, and what major theories of international relations have to say about war. After completing this module, students should have a general understanding of descriptive statistics, including measures of central tendency and variance. They will learn how to create and recode variables in SPSS and be able to create composite variables. It also shows them how to test theories of war to determine which theory is better supported by the data.
