Truth is the first casualty of war, as the ancient Greeks observed. Hence conducting rigorous analyses about the relationships between socio-economic development and security – and how to improve these outcomes – requires, in the first instance, collecting reliable information. This raises conceptual, methodological, practical and ethical, concerns. ISDC develops quantitative and  qualitative methodologies to address these concerns and thereby to enable high quality research in settings shaped by war, disaster or weak institutions. We also provide innovative techniques to measure these conditions, focusing on the exposure of individuals, households and firms to such circumstances. We regularly employ mixed methods to triangulate our research designs and findings and we stress the importance of longitudinal (or panel data) designs to account for unobservable characteristics.