> Most of the complicated stuff really can't be applied to stuff like data on civil wars, since the data doesn't meet basic assumptions of the models I think t

> Most of the complicated stuff really can't be applied to stuff like data on civil wars, since the data doesn't meet basic assumptions of the models I think this is precisely why we have more advanced statistical techniques. There are ways to correct for or at least detect serial correlation, homoskedasticity, etc, all of which are probably in your data. All real world data is fucked up in some way, having a large toolbox of statistical techniques helps you cope with this fact. Maybe not perfectly, but at least you'll know where/why your model is wrong.