Editorial standards
HaveTheyInvadedYet is built to answer one narrow invasion question quickly, while keeping the evidence trail visible and showing direct hostilities separately. The site is informational, not official guidance.
Editorial roles and controls
Collection and scoring
Automated systems collect, normalize, deduplicate, and score public signals. Source-quality weights, corroboration rules, freshness limits, and low-evidence ceilings constrain what those signals can do.
Publishing and review
An operator reviews high-impact decisions under the published threshold policy. YES status and new public conflict publication require explicit review; advisory AI output does not bypass that step.
Source selection policy
- Prefer primary documents and direct official statements for what institutions publicly said or did.
- Prefer wire services and established reporting for event confirmation, while seeking independent corroboration.
- Label and cautiously weight state-affiliated reporting, opinion, analysis, and advocacy material.
- Do not let one outlet, recycled headline cluster, or unreviewed domain determine a high-impact answer.
- Link to original reporting when possible and remove evidence that is irrelevant, misleading, or no longer supports the displayed claim.
Answer the question first
Each conflict page starts with the direct status answer people are searching for. Supporting context explains why the page says YES, KINDA, or NO.
Separate status from temperature
Status is a threshold call. Temperature is an escalation-pressure score. A conflict can be tense or heating up while the answer remains NO.
Prefer public, source-linked evidence
The tracker favors public reporting, primary documents, official statements, major wire services, and corroboration across independent outlets. A source link shows where a claim came from; it is not an endorsement of every claim in that source.
Show uncertainty instead of hiding it
KINDA exists for cases with current limited direct action or invasion-adjacent activity that still fall short of a confirmed invasion or continuing occupation campaign.
Keep YES invasion-only
YES requires reliable public confirmation of an invasion or continuing occupation campaign. A war label, declaration, exchange of strikes, or other direct conflict does not qualify by itself.
Keep decisions updateable
Pages refresh as public signals change. Status and temperature can move when newer reporting, corroboration, or de-escalation evidence changes the picture.
Treat source types differently
Official and state-affiliated sources are useful for what an actor says or claims, but not automatic proof that the claim is true. Opinion, analysis, and unfamiliar domains receive less weight until corroborated or reviewed.
Use AI as an assistant, not an authority
AI-assisted tools may propose summaries, watch items, terminology, relevance checks, or candidate conflicts. Their output is review material. It cannot independently publish a YES answer or approve a new tracked conflict.
Let ceasefires cool the page
A ceasefire, truce, pause, or credible diplomatic channel should change both the wording and the temperature posture. Active pages should not keep peak-fighting language when the current evidence shows a fragile pause.
Corrections and feedback
Corrections are welcome when a source is stale, a link has changed, or a status call appears inconsistent with public evidence. The corrections policy explains what is logged publicly and how to send supporting evidence.
Read the corrections policy