ICEWS Dictionaries

Abstract

The ICEWS dictionaries contain both named individuals or groups, known as actors, and generic individuals or groups, known as agents. Actors are known by a specific name, such as 'Free Syrian Army' or 'Goodluck Johnathan', while agents are known by a generic improper noun, such as 'insurgents' or 'students'. Both actors and agents have time-dependent affiliations with another actor (in the case of an individual being a member of an organization, for example), a country or other autonomous region, or with a general sector/role, such as 'Military' or 'Government'. Also included in the dictionaries are aliases that an actor or agent might be known by. In the case of actors, these are typically alternate spellings of a person's name, while for agents they are typically synonyms. Additional information about the ICEWS program can be found at http://www.icews.com/. Follow our Twitter handle for data updates and other news: @icew