Social & Political
Social & Political
Costs of War research documents the social and political costs of U.S. war and militarism. These include the domestic effects of U.S. wars on populations at home.
After the 9/11 terror attacks in the U.S. on September 11, 2001, U.S. policymakers chose to respond with a war, first invading Afghanistan and then, two years later, invading Iraq.Alternatives to war were scarcely considered. Over two decades later, U.S. counterterrorism operationsspan the globe and continue to have lasting costs. Many of the alternative – historically far more effective –paradigms for addressing the problem of terror attacks are still available to U.S. policymakers.
Today, U.S. government rhetoric frames security threats fromChina andRussiaas the main reason for the sky-high military budget, but this rhetoric is often characterized by threat inflation.
U.S.-led wars have had devastating social and political consequences in the war zones. In Afghanistan, the post-9/11 war shattered an already struggling economy, leaving most Afghans facingpoverty and hunger. Today, many countries are conductingforced returns of migrants back to Afghanistan, and many returnees experience myriad challenges in reintegrating. In the aftermath of the U.S.-led war in Iraq, the Iraqi government fails to provide basic human security for Iraqis.
At home and abroad, U.S. wars and military operations include many abuses ofhuman rights and civil liberties. Government practices include indefinite detention, torture and mistreatment. Domestically, the post-9/11 wars dramatically expanded mass surveillance, eroding constitutional protections, and intensified police militarization. Marginalized and racialized groups, from Muslims and Arabs to Black and Indigenous organizers to migrants, have borne the brunt of these consequences.
The post-9/11 state’s focus on racialized groups may have ill-prepared the U.S. government to address rising white supremacist violence. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has focused on so-called "foreign terrorist organizations" despite the fact that what DHS calls "domestic terrorism," a broad category that encompasses white supremacist attacks, has been responsible formany more attempted attacks than have "foreign terrorist organizations" since 9/11.
The U.S. government borrowed trillions of dollars to pay for the post-9/11 wars at the same time that it instituted tax cuts, a pattern which seen in historical perspective is predicted to lead tohigher levels of social inequality in the U.S.
Worldwide, since the 2000s, national governments and terrorist groups have found ways to curtail conflict coverage through myriad means, including through repressive policies andthe targeting of journalists. Not only do local reporters face great risk, standing alone in the face of extraordinary violence; this also impairs news coverage and, as a result, the worldwide information ecosystem.
U.S. pop culture promotes beliefs that support militarism, often glorifying combat while obscuring the deadly realities of war. ThePentagon influences cultural products, from movies and video games to sports, normalizing the military’s central purpose – war-making – by framing it as a shared value. This forestalls reflection about the choices behind the use of the U.S. military, the treatment of military personnel, and the consequences of U.S. militarism.
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Contributors
Nadje Al-Ali
Robert Family Professor of International Studies and Professor of Anthropology and Middle East Studies at Brown University, Director of Middle East Studies undergraduate concentration at Brown University
Ẹniọlá Ànúolúwapọ́ Ṣóyẹmí
Senior Research Fellow in Political Philosophy and Public Policy at the Blavatnik School of Government
Catherine Besteman
Francis F. Bartlett and Ruth K. Bartlett Professor of Anthropology, Colby College
Melani Cammett
Clarence Dillon Professor of International Affairs, Department of Government, Harvard University
Rosella Cappella Zielinski
Assistant Professor of Political Science, Boston University
Neta Crawford
Montague Burton Professor, University of Oxford , Co-Founder and Strategic Advisor, Costs of War
Erik Dahl
Associate Professor of National Security Affairs, Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, California
Antonio De Lauri
Research Professor at the Chr. Michelsen Institute
Cynthia Enloe
Research Professor of Political Science in the Department of Sustainability and Social Justice, with affiliations in Women’s and Gender Studies and Political Science, Clark University
Peter Gill
Journalist
Roberto González
Professor of Cultural Anthropology at San José State University
Jennifer Heath
Independent Scholar, writer, editor, and curator
Deepa Kumar
Professor of Media Studies at Rutgers University
Nassim Majidi
Co-Founder and Executive Director, Samuel Hall
Megan McBride
Postdoctoral Fellow at the Center for Strategic Studies at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, Visiting Postdoctoral Fellow at the Harvard School of Public Health, Research Analyst
Tanner Mirrlees
Associate Professor of Communication and Digital Media Studies, Ontario Tech University
Miriam Pemberton
Associate Fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies
Nicola Pratt
Associate Professor of International Politics of the Middle East, University of Warwick, UK
Stephanie Savell
Senior Fellow, Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs, Brown University, Director, Costs of War
Roberto Sirvent
Lecturer, Department of Global Health and Social Medicine, Harvard Medical School.
Sophia Stamatopoulou-Robbins
Anthropologist and Film-Maker
Astri Suhrke
Researcher Emerita
Letta Tayler
Associate Director in the Crisis and Conflict Division of Human Rights Watch
Nick Turse
Fellow of the Type Media Center
