Peace and conflict researchers have spent decades building datasets about wars, armed groups, political movements, ceasefires and other aspects of conflict. BRIDGE seeks to understand how we can relate the information collected at a more foundational and conceptual level. BRIDGE will:
- Convert existing datasets in conflict research to Semantic Web knowledge graphs, including the dataset ontologies and exceptions currently found in codebooks and case descriptions.
- Further enhance these datasets by structuring other information in the data collection that did not fit the tabular schema (such as relational structures and information in comment columns).
- Supply this data with further contextual information from existing knowledge bases, such as Wikidata. Examples could be to match with the concrete events that are tied to start and end dates of states.
- Seek to build an harmonized graph that relates the existing data in principled ways.
- Use the knowledge graphs as contextual basis for relation extraction from a systematic sample of qualitative research on a few conflicts. The aim is to explore how well AI can do such advanced extraction, how including KGs can aid such extraction, and to compare how qualitative research and quantitative data represent conflicts.
Through this work, BRIDGE will seek to improve our understanding of how we conceptualize and measure conflict and conflict actors. The project also aims to improve data quality, data transparency, and data integration in peace and conflict research, and contribute to open research.
This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No 101302281). Views and opinions expressed are however those of the authors only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the ERC. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.
