Borrowing money to pay for war leads to greater social inequality and allows governments to shield the public from direct costs of war-leading to higher war support and approval ratings, and less budget oversight.
costs of war
Nearly twenty years of war has had a devastating impact on children in Afghanistan. War casualties among Afghan children are on the rise, and nearly half do not attend school.
The International Committee of the Red Cross and the World Medical Association have issued important and very timely calls for states to join and implement the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.
War support is significantly reduced when war is financed through taxes instead of through borrowing money.
Military spending tends to have a negative impact on economic growth, and is especially detrimental to the economic growth of wealthier countries.
U.S. testing of nuclear weapons detonated in the Marshall Islands was equivalent to 1.6 Hiroshima-sized bombs dropped daily for 12 years (1946-1958).
When host countries are less relevant to U.S. security interests, the presence of U.S. troops can lead to positive human rights practices.
Exposure to the Syrian war is directly associated with high rates of PTSD, suicide, and poor physical and mental health among Syrian refugees and IDPs.
Between 1960 and 2005, 106 countries (democracies and non-democracies) have suffered reduced quality of life due to foreign military interventions.
There are obvious differences between the human and financial costs of war, but their respective impact on war support needs to be further distinguished. This study helps bring attention to the unusual priorities behind war support in the United States
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