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Warfare and children
1Intensive Care Unit, Royal Children's Hospital, Parkville, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. frank.shann@rch.org.au
Insights
Millions of children die annually from preventable causes, largely due to misallocated global resources. Shifting funds from military spending to development aid could save countless young lives and improve global health outcomes.
Area of Science:
- Global Health
- International Relations
- Economics
Background:
- In 2007, 9.2 million children under five died, with 99.8% of deaths in developing nations.
- The majority of these deaths resulted from common childhood infections and were preventable.
- War causes significant child mortality, both directly and indirectly, but most child deaths occur in non-war settings.
Purpose of the Study:
- To highlight the disproportionate allocation of global resources towards military expenditure compared to development aid.
- To underscore the preventable nature of most child deaths and their connection to resource misallocation.
- To analyze the impact of military spending on global health and development.
Main Methods:
- Comparative analysis of global military expenditure versus overseas development aid.
- Examination of per capita health spending in low-income countries versus global military spending.
- Review of child mortality statistics and their causes in relation to global financial priorities.
Main Results:
- In 2007, global military expenditure ($1339 billion) vastly exceeded overseas development aid ($104 billion).
- The 49 poorest countries spent only $27 per person on health, while global military spending was $201 per person.
- The diversion of funds from development to military activities represents the greatest harm, outweighing direct war casualties.
Conclusions:
- Vast global military spending diverts critical funds from essential development and health initiatives.
- Redirecting even a fraction of military expenditure towards health and poverty reduction could save millions of children's lives.
- Addressing child mortality requires a fundamental shift in global financial priorities away from military activities and towards human development.
Abstract:
In 2007, 136 million children were born in the world, and 9.2 million died before they were 5 years old; 99.8% of these deaths were in developing countries, and 8.2 million were unnecessary. This is 23 000 unnecessary deaths every day. Approximately 0.2 million children die from the direct effects of war every year, and at least twice as many die from the indirect effects. However, most child deaths are caused by common childhood infections in communities that are not affected by war. In 2007, overseas development aid totalled only $104 billion, and world military expenditure totalled US$1339 billion. The 49 poorest countries in the world have a population of 1.3 billion; they spent only $27 per person on health in 2006, but the world spent $201 per person on military activity. The five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council account for 90% of weapons sales to developing countries, yet they are the very countries that have accepted responsibility for ensuring world security. Unfortunately, many governments in both rich and poor countries do not want to limit military spending - the vested interests that support military activity are too powerful. War is immensely harmful, but not primarily because of the horrible injuries, nor the large number of deaths it causes indirectly from infection, malnutrition, and social and political disruption. By far, the greatest harm comes from the diversion of huge amounts of money that could be used for beneficial development into harmful and destructive military activity.
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