The Arms Technology Data track the acquisition of 29 specific arms technologies across the international system, from percussion lock muskets to armed drones, from 1816-2023.
Arms Technology Data, 1816-2023
Overview
Arms play a pivotal role in politics, shaping the distribution of power both domestically, where the state is often defined by its monopoly on them, and internationally, as tools of war and diplomacy. Beyond their quantity, the quality and technological advancement of arms are crucial. Since the Industrial Revolution, arms technology has progressed as rapidly as other forms of technology. The Correlates of War Arms Technology Data 2016–2023 tracks the use of 29 arms technologies across all states in the international system, offering insights into the diffusion of arms, as well as the causes and consequences of arms technological adoption within and across states.
Citation
In any papers or publications that utilize this data set, users are asked to give the version number and cite the data as follows:
Hariri, Jacob Gerner, and Asger Mose Wingender. 2025. A new data set on arms technology adoption 1816-2023. Version 1.0. Online: https://correlatesofwar.org. (PDF)
The COW Arms Technology Data Set 1816-2023 builds on earlier, less comprehensive, data used in:
Hariri, Jacob Gerner, and Asger Mose Wingender. “Jumping the gun: how dictators got ahead of their subjects.” The Economic Journal 133.650 (2023): 728-760.
Hariri, Jacob Gerner, and Asger Mose Wingender. “Arms technology and the coercive imbalance outside Western Europe.” The Journal of Politics 86.4 (2024): 1557-1573.
Data Set
The data set includes annual information on 29 arms technologies in all states in the international system since 1816. It also includes a simple index of the general technology level in a state based on how many of the 29 technologies the state has adopted.
The data set comes in both wide format, as is standard in the Correlates of War data universe, and in long format with the unit of observation being a technology-state-year triplet. See the codebook for further details.
- cow_arms_tech_long.csv
- cow_arms_tech_long.dta
- cow_arms_tech_wide.csv
- cow_arms_tech.wide.dta
- COW_codebook.pdf