Mapping subnational administrative areas

Between teaching classes and a couple of projects that I’ve been working on lately, I’ve been finding Stata’s spmap command to be a really useful tool for generating maps to display data. One project in particular has involved the collection of some new data for examining various developmental outcomes at the subnational level. To some extent this is new territory for me, but the idea of being able to display the geographic distribution of some of the key variables that we’re interested in was really attractive. I’ve found shapefiles for generating global maps, as well as maps of the US, but Continue reading Mapping subnational administrative areas

Terrorism vs. Terror Organizations: Violence Is Not The Only Tool

The following is a guest post by Seden Akcinaroglu and Efe Tokdemir. Seden is an associate professor in the Department of Political Science at Binghamton University. Efe is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Political Science at Binghamton University. This post is based on research from their recent article, “Reputation of Terror Groups Dataset: Measuring popularity of terror groups”, in the Journal of Peace Research.  The word ‘terrorism’ often includes a negative connotation, and the events in the last few years such as the multiple explosions in Paris resulting in 130 civilian killings, or children abducted and raped by Boko Haram Continue reading Terrorism vs. Terror Organizations: Violence Is Not The Only Tool

Who Won the Hispanic Vote in Nevada?

The 2016 Democratic Presidential nominating process has become in part a competition over who can win over non-white voters. This is not surprising given that the Democratic Party is associated with representing the interests of minority voters. The Democratic Party needs these voters to turn out in November to defeat the Republicans. Heading into Nevada this weekend, Clinton and Sanders debated over whether Sanders could attract non-white voters in subsequent caucuses/primaries. After the Nevada caucuses, the results of a CBS entrance/exit poll suggested that Sanders won the Hispanic vote in Nevada. According to the poll, 53% of Hispanics voted for Continue reading Who Won the Hispanic Vote in Nevada?