The social cost of war: Violent conflict and public health

The effects of militarized conflict pervade countless aspects of society, yet scholars have focused very little attention on the consequences of conflict for the populations of states. My dissertation assesses the cost of war by examining the relationship between violent conflict and public health. I argue that the effect of conflict on the health and well-being of populations is an important consequence of war and a significant threat to human security. I study this effect in light of the components of public health and hypothesize that conflict results in short-term and long-term repercussions for the health of societies. Moreover, conflict indirectly undermines health through economic and social influences, including diversion of resources away from health and social spending. I present a framework within which to evaluate the complex linkages between war and health, and my empirical analyses explicate the mechanisms through which war causes decline in the health of societies. In chapter 1, I introduce the project and reflect on the importance of studying the health consequences of conflict as an issue of human security. I discuss the relevance of human security as a framework within which to assess global security, and the importance of public health as a component of human security, in Chapter 2. Then I lay out the conceptual and theoretical framework for this study in Chapter 3, outlining the ways in which conflict undermines health of societies. In Chapter 4, I empirically analyze the effect of conflict, along with relevant political and economic factors, on overall levels of health achievement. I extend this analysis to disaggregated measures of public health over the past four decades in Chapter 5. I go on to assess the relationship between an important economic effect of war---conflict-induced budget trade-offs---and public health in Chapters 6. Chapter 7 concludes the dissertation.