Abstract
The operationalization of foreign policy as events has played an important role in the comparative study of foreign policy. The thesis of the article is that this operationalization is far more problematic than assumed by the events data movement. First of all, there are phenomena which cannot be referred to a specific point in time and which are not aimed at a specific target, as assumed in the creation of events data. Secondly, states influence each other through other kinds of behaviour, and, thirdly, it is extremely difficult to make a classification which covers all types of events in a meaningful way. These problems limit the usefulness of events data.
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