The dashboard is set up for exploration and queries. There are several filters on the right of the dashboard that allow users to create subsets of the data.

Using the filter menus

• To apply a filter, select a dropdown menu, remove the checkmark next to “All,” then select the desired items.
• All filters can be instantly reset by clicking the  |←  icon in the bottom toolbar.
• Individual filters can be cleared by hovering over the upper right-hand corner of the filter. A “remove filter” icon will appear.
• When a filter is applied, the other filters will have their choices limited to what appears in the subset. For example, applying the choice “Clinton” to the Administration filter will cause the Secretaries filter to show only the secretaries of defense who served under President Bill Clinton.
• Users may type desired results into the filters search box. This is especially useful in navigating the rather long list in the Country filter.
• The Keyword filter searches the Remarks associated with each trip. This is a good place to start if searching for certain topics (NATO, United Nations, etc.) or meetings with foreign leaders. To clear this filter, delete your entry and press Enter on your keyboard.

The secretaries of defense vary widely in their lengths of tenure, number of foreign trips, and travel habits; this makes direct comparisons challenging. The dashboard below offers several distinct measures of comparison and allows those comparisons to be applied to subsets of the data. Users may find some comparisons more useful than others, depending on how the data is filtered or which secretaries are being compared.

Total Foreign Visits. This is a count of each visit to a foreign country. If a secretary’s trip included stops at several countries, these are counted as several visits. Likewise, side trips and day trips are counted as separate visits.

Approximate Days Visiting. This is an approximation of how many days a secretary spent in each country; these individual stays are totaled in the bar graph. The days in a visit does not include the end date—for example, a visit that started on January 1 and ended on January 5 is counted as a four-day visit. We have approximated visits that had an arrival and departure on the same day as a half-day visit. These are indicated in the tooltip as “partial days.” Likewise, side trips and day trips are counted as a partial day. This results in a slight increase in the total for secretaries who took many day trips, and a slight decrease in the total for secretaries who had many visits that did not include an overnight stay. Results should be used with awareness of these limitations.

Approximate days visiting as a percentage of days in office. While this comparison helps take into account the variation between secretaries’ lengths of tenure, users should bear in mind that it is based on the an approximation of days spent visiting (see above). Results should be used with awareness of these limitations.

Average foreign visits per month. This comparison is less of an approximation than the above but captures only the number of visits, not the time spent visiting. It is less meaningful when filtering down to the level of an individual nation.

Total countries visited. This is a count of the nations visited, as opposed to the number of visits. Each nation is counted only once, regardless of how many visits were made to that nation.

     Browse the data using a world map dashboard.