Main DCAD files

The Defense Cooperation Agreement Dataset (DCAD) is a comprehensive, human-coded dataset of bilateral defense cooperation agreements (DCAs). A DCA is a formal international agreement that coordinates and institutionalizes the routine, day-to-day defense relations of its signatories. DCAs promote such activities as defense policy coordination, joint military exercises, joint peacekeeping operations, defense-related research and development, joint weapons programs, procurement and arms trade, officer exchanges, joint working groups, and many others. DCAD covers all independent countries for the period 1980-2010. In total, the dataset includes 1,872 unique agreements. To the best of our knowledge, these agreements comprise the full universe of DCAs during this time period. DCAD is based on three types of sources: (1) large repositories like the United Nations Treaty Series and World Treaty Index; (2) individual country sources, such as treaty databases, legislative gazettes, ministry and embassy publications, and, in some cases, direct communications from personnel at foreign, defense, and legal affairs ministries; and (3) global newspaper and newswire archives, accessed via the Dow Jones Factiva database. DCAD consists of two files. The main file, organized by treaty-years, contains information on each of the unique treaties in the dataset. The second file, organized by dyad-years, contains binary indicators that identify whether country-pairs have a DCA in place or not. Users are cautioned to thoroughly read the codebook and supporting documentation before using the dyadic data.