{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.017592592592592594, 'fraction_numerical': 0.021296296296296296, 'mean_word_length': 5.79874213836478, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
Unmasking Militants: Organizational Trends in Armed Groups, 1970–2012


 Despite the prevalence of armed groups in world politics, a prominent measurement challenge obscures understanding about many of these militant actors, especially when their activities fall below the threshold of civil war. This note addresses this gap by introducing a new dataset on the organizational characteristics of 1,202 armed groups that operated in 124 countries between 1970 and 2012. It outlines the dataset's construction and uses principal component analysis to explore organizational trends across armed groups. The results show armed groups tend to organize around three archetypes, each with different ideological goals, recruitment tactics, and areas of operation. Armed group campaigns are far more numerous than previously realized and can evolve in intensity over time. Unpacking these trends creates substantial opportunities for developing and testing new group-level theories about the causes of militant formation, escalation processes, and consequences of organizational decisions.