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Abstract
Although survival analysis has become a staple in political science research, many scholars ignore one of the fundamental assumptions that these models make: that all observed subjects will eventually experience the event of interest. In this dissertation, I introduce readers to the semiparametric proportional hazards cure model, a model designed to deal with data that violate these assumptions. To facilitate the implementation of these models, I introduce new software designed to estimate these models in the R statistical computing environment. To demonstrate the usefulness of the cure model, I also present two novel theoretical chapters that use cure models to test their theoretical propositions. The first substantive chapter examines why and when states become involved in territorial claims. The second examines whether economically interdependent states are more likely to resolve contentious claims over territorial, river, and maritime claims.