The War Machine and Global Health

Edited by Merrill Singer, G. Derrick Hodge

Not available to order

Publication date:

16 January 2010

Length of book:

332 pages

Publisher

AltaMira Press

ISBN-13: 9780759119437

In the contemporary world, war rivals infectious disease as a global cause of morbidity and mortality. Since the end of World War II, there have been at least 160 wars around the world with as many as 25 million (and probably many more) people killed, most of them civilians. Directly or indirectly, war touches the lives of most people on the planet, often with lasting and costly impact. Framed by the holistic and ethnographically grounded theoretical perspective of critical medical anthropology, and more broadly by the political economy of health, this book of essays by leading medical anthropologists and other health social scientists carefully examines the global effects of war, the war industry, and the international weapons trade on human health and well-being. Further, this book goes beyond offering a lively and readable account of a pressing health concern by critically analyzing the political and economic forces driving the war machine to inflict ever-increasing levels of social suffering and loss of life.

Chapter 1 Introduction: The Myriad Impacts of the War Machine on Global Health
Chapter 2
Chapter I. The War Machine and Global Morbidity and Mortality
Chapter 3
Chapter 1. The Echoes of War: Effects of Early Malnutrition on Adult Health
Chapter 4
Chapter 2. War and the Public Health Disaster in Iraq
Chapter 5
Chapter 3. Children and Revolution: The Mental Health and Psychosocial Wellbeing of Child Soldiers in Nepal
Chapter 6
Chapter II: The Environment of War and its Impact on the Human Environment
Chapter 7
Chapter 4. The Causes and Human Costs of Targeting Iraq
Chapter 8
Chapter 5. The Impact Of The War Machine On Global Warming And Health: A Political Ecological Perspective
Chapter 9
Chapter 6. Dying of Sorrow: Expulsion, Empire, and the People of Diego Garcia
Chapter 10
Chapter III: The War Machine and the Machinery of Human Social Life
Chapter 11
Chapter 7. Hasbara, Health Care and the Israeli Occupied Palestinian Territories
Chapter 12
Chapter 8. Waging War on the Wageless: Extrajudicial Killings, Private Armies, and the Poor of Honduras
Chapter 13
Chapter 9. Olive Drab and White Coats: United States Military Medical Teams Interoperating with Guatemala
Chapter 14 Conclusion: The Political-Economy and Critical Geography of the War Machine

The editors and contributors present comprehensive discussions on the health consequences of local, national, and global wars; war machinery; and war economies. War directly causes morbidity and mortality, and the destruction of economies and infrastructures has profound effects on the survivors, causing malnutrition, disabilities, public health disasters, mental health problems, and psychosocial trauma. The stressful aftermath of war is especially devastating to the most vulnerable members of a population, such as children, women, and elderly people. The book also touches on the damaging effects war has on human social life, such as the creation of lasting hatred between clashing populations. Furthermore, the war machine supported by key industries playsan important role in global warming, which in turn causes more environment-related health problems as well as additional armed conflicts over seeking and controlling increasingly scarce resources. The capitalist political economy characteristic of endless development and exploration is cited as one of the driving forces of the global war machine. A must read in contemporary critical medical anthropology. Essential.