Global nuclear weapons inventories
Metadata
SeriesNPOW (SocioPolitical preprocessor) is part of the interstate politics model, of which the most recent and complete documentation is available on Pardee's website.
Update Frequency & Source
The data source is the journal article: Global nuclear weapons inventories, 1945–2013, written by Hans M. Kristensen and Robert S. Norris https://doi.org/10.1177/0096340213501363 The most recent pull in 2017/04 is from the updated versino of the article (same authors and same publisher.) Based on historical records, the authors update this article with new data every 3-4 years.
Back-up sources: The FAS Nuclear Notebooks could be used when individual country’s data/analysis is needed. They have been updated for as frequent as once per year. However, it’s not organized in a way that’s easy for data pulling, so currently we are not using it for data collection purpose. In case the above journal stops updating, the FAS Nuclear Notebooks will work as an alternative source to keep the series going. Issues dating back to the very first issue in May 1987 can be found through the following link. https://fas.org/issues/nuclear-weapons/nuclear-notebook/
DataDict
Variable: NPOW
Table: SeriesNPOW
Group: Government
SubGroup: International
Series: No
CoVaTrA: No
Cohort: No
Definition: Nuclear warheads, strategic (regardless of size)
Extended Source Defn: No
Units: Units
Years: 1945-2013
Source: Global nuclear weapons inventories, 1945–2013, written by Hans M. Kristensen and Robert S. Norris https://doi.org/10.1177/0096340213501363 (We have access through DU library/AAC)
Original Source: Federation of American Scientists website (www.fas.org) as compiled by Timothy Smith
Notes: JW; HF; When SIPRI specified a range, the average value was used. Data for North Korea is estimated based on number of nuclear tests.
Last IFs Update: 2017/04/19
Aggregation: SUM
Disaggregation: GDP
TreatNullsAs0s: n/a
Proprietary: n/a
Used In Preprocessor: Yes
Used In Preprocessor File Name: SOCIOPOL
Compare Other Forecast: n/a
Code in Source: n/a
Decimal Places: 0
Country Concordance: Ifs Country
Formula: n/a
Country Coverage
China
France
India
Israel
Korea, Democratic People's Republic of
Pakistan
Russian Federation
United Kingdom
United States
Instructions:
Special attention
North Korea
Despite three nuclear tests and production of enough plutonium for 8 to 12 nuclear bombs, North Korea has yet to demonstrate that it has operationalized any weapons. It is the conclusion of the US intelligence community that despite its efforts, North Korea has not, however, fully developed, tested, or demonstrated the full range of capabilities necessary for a nuclear-armed missile. (Clapper, 2013: 7). Currently, data for North Korea is estimated based on number of nuclear tests.
Blending
Because of the way we pull new data (hand typing) for this series, it is very important to go back and blend the previous years. For instance, in the last update, without blending, we would have erased the previous 1945-2010 data with the new 2011-2013 import.