SHERFACS
A Cross-Paradigm, Hierarchical and Contextually Sensitive,
Conflict Management Dataset

Frank L. Sherman
Global Affairs Institute
Syracuse University
Email: flsherma@mailbox.syr.edu

Genesis of SHERFACS

The SHERFACS Project is the ongoing culmination of a series of research efforts begun by Ernst Haas when he developed a study of UN efforts toward collective security and focused on that organization's efforts to collectively manage international conflict (Haas, 1968; Haas, 1983). Cases included were primarily those in which hostilities occured and were formally placed upon either UN General Assembly or Security Council agendas. Three revisions were made to the Haas study:

Joseph Nye addressed the conflict management activities of regional international organizations (Nye, 1971).

Haas, Robert Butterworth and Nye which improved upon Nye's efforts by including more cases of regional organizational involvement and by including other hostile conflicts as cases, even if there was no international organizational conflict management (Haas, Butterworth, Nye, 1972).

Two studies by Robert Butterworth which expanded the line of the earlier studies by including individual, or ad hoc, conflict management efforts (by one or more nation-states or by non-collective security international organizations -- WHO, IBRD, WCC among others (Butterworth with Scranton, 1976; Butterworth, 1980).

Efforts in the early 1980's at M.I.T. headed by Frank Sherman and Hayward Alker expanded the Haas-effort in three major ways:

Change of the "flat-model" representation of a conflict management case into a more narratively structured series of "phases" using the Barringer-Bloomfield-Leiss phase types (Barringer, 1972; Bloomfield and Leiss, 1969).

Addition of the measurement of the referral process of management agents to the assessment of the effectiveness of management agents.

Addition of the individual actions of actors (both primary and secondary), and the individual actions of management agents were added to the data structure.

Rather than being described in a single linear series of data points, conflict cases were now more fully described by multiple length, and multiple numbered records in five data levels: case overview, phase structure, party actions, management referrals, and management agent actions. For his dissertation in the mid-1980's Sherman continued the adaptation of the Haas-line (with the M.I.T. efforts now termed SHERFACS) by widening the criteria for including cases to all similar cases of challenges to the "sinews" of sovereignty whether or not they proceeded to a crisis or hostilities. Also included was a representation of "internal" conflicts (termed quarrels) that looked at likely extra-legal or violent confrontations between nation-states and minority groups, or between non-national groups within specific states. Nearly 1000 cases of quarrels are now part of the SHERFACS dataset. Over 700 international disputes were also uncovered. The period of historical time spanned from 1945 to the end of 1984.

Evolution of SHERFACS 2.0

The expected update (To be completed by the end of 1995) of the SHERFACS will at least cover cases continuing past 1984 and new cases occurring from the end of 1984 through the end of June 1994. Preliminary findings indicate that the number of cases in the dataset will double. Major developmental changes in SHERFACS include the following:

Political Actors: A finer specification and documentation of political actors involved in quarrels and disputes, including description of the "non-state" actor's history, ethnic, religious and ideological character.

Fully Referenced Actions by Actors: More fully referenced actions by actors (with specific targets and actions) reflecting the traditional events data recording format of actor-actions-target within general hostility-cooperation categories.

Matrix Representation of State Characteristics: A more flexible ability to construct and merge matrix representations for state or national actors of power and influence scales, indices, and other information.

Management Success Measures: An increased specificity of management agent information, including the Haas success variables, and textual descriptions of the referral and management process.

Refugee Identification and Measures: The identification of refugees resulting from, occurring co-terminously with, or from prior events, as they relate to the dispute or quarrel, including a text description and measures of ethnic, religious or ideological character as well as the character and type of intervention to resolve the problems generated by the presence of refugees.

Additional Data-Sources: The ability to create additional state or actor referenced matrices including from among military arms sales, trade patterns, transfers of assistance and other indicators useful in the analysis conducted within frameworks of international political economy.

Current Project Reports

Frank L. Sherman, "Research Design, Operational Protocols, Data Representations and Paradox 4.0 Database Codebook for SHERFACS 2.0," Project Report 3.2, mimeo, (Syracuse, New York: Syracuse University, November 1994).

Frank L. Sherman, "List of SHERFACS Cases: Quarrels and Disputes," Project Report 2.3, mimeo, (Syracuse, New York: Syracuse University, 1 November 1994).

Frank L. Sherman, "Listing of Ethnic and Religiou Non-national Actors for SHERFACS 2.0," Project Report 14.1, mimeo, (Syracuse, New York: Syracuse University, 31 October 1994).

References

Richard E. Barringer, War: Patterns of Conflict (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1972).

Lincoln P. Bloomfield and Amelia C. Leiss, Controlling Small Wars: A Strategy For The 1970's (N.Y.: Knopf, 1969).

Robert Lyle Butterworth, Managing Interstate Conflict, 1975-1979: Data With Synopses, unpublished Final Report to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, 1980.

Robert Lyle Butterworth with Margaret E. Scranton, Managing Interstate Conflict, 1945-74: Data With Synopses (Pittsburgh, PA: University Center for International Studies, 1976).

Ernst B. Haas, Collective Security and The Future International System (University of Denver, Denver, Colorado: Monograph Series in World Affairs, Volume 5, Number 1, 1967-1968).

Ernst B. Haas, Why We Still Need The United Nations (Berkeley, CA: Institute of International Studies, 1986).

Joseph S. Nye, Peace in Parts (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1968).

Ernst B. Haas, Robert Lyle Butterworth, and Joseph S. Nye, Conflict Management by International Organizations (Morristown, N.J.: General Learning Press, 1972).

Frank L. Sherman (flsherma@mailbox.syr.edu)