COLT is the first global dataset tracking foreign visits by heads of government and state, a previously under-investigated diplomatic tool. It was created by Jonathan D. Moyer et al. of the Pardee Institute - Diplometrics and last updated in May 2026. The data enables analysis of how leader travel relates to foreign aid, interstate conflict, and diplomatic affinities.
Use Cases
- Analyze the relationship between diplomatic visits and international trade based on the application mentioned in the description.
- Model the drivers of leader travel based on factors like development, trade, and regime type described in the findings.
- Assess the impact of leader visits on foreign aid allocation based on the dataset's stated purpose.
- Study the connection between institutional co-membership and diplomatic travel patterns as suggested by the research motives.
Strengths
- Represents a unique, first-of-its-kind global indicator of international interaction.
- Enables analysis across monadic and dyadic levels as described in the research scope.
Limitations
- Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
- Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
Provenance
- Source
- Pardee Institute - Diplometrics
- Freshness
- Last updated 2026-05-13 18:23:43; freshness should be verified.
- Geography
- Global