Costs of War

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May 15, 2023
Tags Stephanie Savell
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How Death Outlives War: The Reverberating Impact of the Post-9/11 Wars on Human Health

Paper

War’s destruction of economies, public services, infrastructure, and the environment leads to deaths that occur long after bombs drop and grow in scale over time. This report reviews the latest research to examine the causal pathways that have led to an estimated 3.6-3.8 million indirect deaths in post-9/11 war zones, including Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Syria, and Yemen. The total death toll in these war zones could be at least 4.5-4.7 million and counting, though the precise mortality figure remains unknown. Some people were killed in the fighting, but far more, especially children, have been killed by the reverberating effects of war, such as the spread of disease. 

An infographic outlining causes of Indirect War Deaths

The report examines the devastating toll of war on human health, whoever the combatant, whatever the compounding factor, in the most violent conflicts in which the U.S. government has been engaged in the name of counterterrorism since September 11, 2001. Rather than teasing apart who, what, or when is to blame, this report shows that the post-9/11 wars are implicated in many kinds of deaths, making clear that the impacts of war's ongoing violence are so vast and complex that they are unquantifiable.

"More than 7.6 million children under five in post-9/11 war zones are suffering from acute malnutrition"

In laying out how the post-9/11 wars have led to illness and indirect deaths, the report’s goal is to build greater awareness of the fuller human costs of these wars and support calls for the United States and other governments to alleviate the ongoing losses and suffering of millions in current and former warzones. The report highlights many long-term and underacknowledged consequences of war for human health, emphasizing that some groups, particularly women and children, suffer the brunt of these ongoing impacts.

"At least 4.5 million people have died in post-9/11 war zones as a result of war and its reverberating impacts"

Author

  • Stephanie Savell

    Stephanie Savell

    Senior Fellow, Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs, Brown University, Director, Costs of War

    Stephanie Savell is a public anthropologist researching militarism, (in)security and activism in relation to the United States post-9/11 wars and policing in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Under her leadership, the Costs of War project has produced research cited in thousands of media articles and broadcasts and by President Biden in his official speech about the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. Since 2017, Savell's regularly updated global map of U.S. counterterrorism operations has been featured by USA Today, CNN, BBC World News and Smithsonian magazine, among others. She is co-author of The Civic Imagination: Making a Difference in American Political Life (Routledge, 2014) and, in addition to Costs of War reports, has published in journals including American Anthropologist and American Ethnologist, and media outlets such as The Guardian, Foreign Policy, Newsweek, and Axios. Her media appearances include interviews on CNN, NPR, Al Jazeera, Vox, The Problem with Jon Stewart, C-SPAN Washington Journal and Democracy Now. She earned her Ph.D. from Brown University.