The MTOPS Data Set

The ICOW multilateral treaties of pacific settlement (MTOPS) data set includes signature and ratification status for all regional and global treaties that explicitly call for the pacific settlement of (political) disputes among their members. This data set is expected to be used primarily to test the proposition that the regional or global institutional context -- as indicated by joint membership in such an organization -- should affect states' choices of actions in attempting to settle their territorial, river, maritime, or other issues. Over thirty regional and global treaties and organizations are included in the current version of this data set; more details on each organization's charter are provided in the codebook and documentation. Paul Hensel's International Organizations web page offers more information and links to online resources related to international organizations, including many of the cases in the MTOPS data.

Project Participants

Current Status

The MTOPS data set currently covers all known institutions, organizations, and treaties between 1816-2014. This will be updated regularly in the future to add any new cases that qualify, and to update the membership and status of any of these current cases as countries join or leave or as the status of the entire treaty/institution changes.

Data Set References

The first published article to use the MTOPS data set was Paul Hensel's 2001 ISQ article, which used the data to help study the management of territorial claims in the Western Hemisphere:

A later article extended the data set to add coding for territorial integrity provisions:

Download the Data and Documentation

All ICOW data sets may be downloaded freely, but we request several professional courtesies from users:

Documentation

The following links provide access to the coding manual and other useful information:

Data

The codebook and documentation listed above are also included in the data download:

Please note that this, like all ICOW data sets, uses the list of country codes in the COW interstate system. Please see that list for help in identifying which countries were involved in the events included in this data set, or for any questions about when each country was considered a sovereign, recognized state.

Contact Information

The Multilateral Treaties of Pacific Settlement (MTOPS) data set is collected and maintained by Paul Hensel at the University of North Texas. Please contact him with any questions about the data set:


List of Qualifying Treaties and Institutions

Note that much more detail is available in the documentation files that are listed above; this list is meant to facilitate quick research on each treaty/institution beyond that information, e.g. for scholars wanting to view other provisions of these treaties or for ICOW researchers wanting to see if the membership of an institution has changed since the last data release.

Global and Cross-Regional

Western Hemisphere Treaties and Institutions

European Treaties and Institutions

African Treaties and Institutions

Middle Eastern Treaties and Institutions

Asian/Oceanian Treaties and Institutions


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Last updated: 30 July 2018
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