(iPoster) Forced Starvation during Targeted Mass Killing Events: A New Dataset

• In Event: Poster Sessions: Health Politics and Policy & Wartime Violence, Armed Actors, and Civilian Agency
  In Poster Session: Poster Session: Wartime Violence, Armed Actors, and Civilian Agency

Abstract

This article will introduce a new dataset coding the use of forced starvation as weapon during targeted mass killing events (1946-2024) as an extension of the Targeted Mass Killing dataset. The dataset builds upon the work done by the World Peace Foundation Historic Famines data to code against all targeted mass killing events to assess the use of starvation as a weapon of targeted mass killing. The article discusses existing datasets and sources, the concept and operationalization of forced starvation during targeted mass killing, the coding methodology and process. The dataset extension codes variables against all event years across multiple variables. These include the presence of forced starvation; ordinal intent; ordinal obstruction; type of obstruction, destruction/appropriation of objects indispensable to survival; forced displacement; excess deaths and concurrent natural hazards. The dataset includes sources and brief narrative annotations describing the event. The dataset provides a resource for future analysis of forced starvation as a weapon of targeted mass killing for research, prevention policy and forecasting. The article describes several empirical trends in forced starvation during targeted mass killing events demonstrating how forced starvation is often used to amplify the effects of direct killing of civilians with similar dynamics of group targeted intent and presents potential pathways for the datasets future use. The dataset also serves as an example and the foundation for coding of other strategies used as weapons during mass killing events to improve our understanding of when forced starvation is used as opposed to, or in addition, to other mass killing strategies.

Authors

• David Muchlinski, Georgia Institute of Technology

• Svitlana Chernykh, Australian National University