Watson School of International and Public Affairs
Costs of War

Stephanie Savell

Senior Fellow, Thomas J. Watson Jr. School of 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.


SEE PAPERS > 
United States Counterterrorism Operations Under the Biden Administration 2021-2023 (2024)
How Death Outlives War: The Reverberating Impact of the Post-9/11 Wars on Human Health (2023)
The 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force: A Comprehensive Look at Where and How it Has Been Used (2021)
The Costs of United States' Post-9/11 "Security Assistance": How Counterterrorism Intensified Conflict in Burkina Faso and Around the World (2020)
United States Counterterrorism Operations 2018-2020 (2021)
Numbers and Per Capita Distribution of Troops Serving in the U.S. Post-9/11 Wars in 2019, By State (2020)
Map: Current United States Counterterror War Locations (2018)  

Heidi Peltier

Senior Researcher, Thomas J. Watson Jr. School of International and Public Affairs, Brown University
Director of Programs, Costs of War

Heidi Peltier has been a contributing author to the Costs of War project since its inception in 2010 and joined the staff in 2019. Peltier is an economist who has written on military-related topics including the employment impacts of military and other public spending; military contracting, or what she calls the “Camo Economy;” and other areas at the intersection of militarism and public finance.  She has also written widely on the employment impacts of a transition to a low-carbon economy, and is the author of the book, Creating a Clean-Energy Economy: How Investments in Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Can Create Jobs in a Sustainable Economy. Heidi has been interviewed in print, radio, and podcasts regarding her research on the employment impacts of military spending as well as on her research on the clean energy economy. She has presented her work at the U.N. Climate Change Conference, to various public officials at the state and federal levels in the U.S., and at conferences domestically and abroad. Heidi has served as a consultant with the U.S. Department of Energy, the United Nations Industrial Development Organization, the International Labor Organization, and various other organizations.

SEE PAPER >
We Get What We Pay For: The Cycle of Military Spending, Industry Power, and Economic Dependence (2024)
War Contract Spending in Afghanistan Since 2001 (2022)
Eight Things You Should Know About Defense Spending and Inflation (2022)
The Growth of the Camo Economy and the Commercialization of the Post-9/11 Wars (2020)
The Cost of Debt-Financed War: Public Debt and Rising Interest for Post-9/11 War Spending (2020)
Cut Military Spending, Fund Green Manufacturing (2019)
War Spending and Lost Opportunities (2019)
Job Opportunity Cost of War (2017)

Mimi Healy

Associate

Mimi Healy is an associate for the Costs of War project. She received her Masters in Social Anthropology from the London School of Economics and Political Science, where her dissertation focused on liminality, affect, and reproduction. She has worked for and received training from various peace organizations, including Peace Action of NY, the Peace Corps, UNESCO, CodePink, Woman Against War, Amnesty International and others. 

Neta C. Crawford

Montague Burton Professor, University of Oxford
Co-Founder and Strategic Advisor, Costs of War

Neta C. Crawford is the author of "The Pentagon, Climate Change, and War: Charting the Rise and Fall of U.S. Military Emissions" (MIT Press, 2022). Crawford is also the author of three other books, "Accountability for Killing: Moral Responsibility for Collateral Damage in America's Post-9/11 Wars" (2013), "Soviet Military Aircraft" (1987) and "Argument and Change in World Politics" (2002), named Best Book in International History and Politics by the American Political Science Association. She has written more than two dozen peer reviewed articles on issues of war and peace. Dr. Crawford has served on the governing Board of the Academic Council of the United Nations System and on the Governing Council of the American Political Science Association. Dr. Crawford was elected into the American Academy of Arts and Science in 2023.


SEE PAPERS >
Blood and Treasure: United States Budgetary Costs and Human Costs of 20 Years of War in Iraq and Syria, 2003-2023 (2023)
The U.S. Budgetary Costs of the Post-9/11 Wars (2021)
Human Cost of Post-9/11 Wars: Direct War Deaths in Major War Zones (2021)
Afghanistan's Rising Civilian Death Toll Due to Airstrikes, 2017-2020 (2020)
Human Costs of Post-9/11 Wars: Direct War Deaths in Major War Zones (2019)
Pentagon Fuel Use, Climate Change, and the Costs of War (2019)
United States Budgetary Costs of the Post-9/11 Wars Through FY2019: $5.9 Trillion Spent and Obligated (2018)
Human Cost of the Post-9/11 Wars: Lethality and the Need for Transparency (2018)
US Budgetary Costs of Wars through 2016: $4.79 Trillion and Counting (2016)
Update on the Human Costs of War for Afghanistan and Pakistan, 2001 to mid-2016 (2016)
War Related Death, Injury and Displacement in Afghanistan and Pakistan 2001-2014 (2015)
US Costs of Wars through 2014: $4.4 Trillion and Counting (2014)
Civilian Death and Injury in the Iraq War, 2003-2013 (2013)
Civilians Killed in US Operations in Yemen (2012)
War Related Death and Injury in Pakistan 2004-2011 (2011)
Civilian Death and Injury in Iraq 2003-2011 (2011)
Civilian Death and Injury in Afghanistan, 2001-2011 (2011)
Assessing the Human Toll of the Post-9/11 Wars: The Dead and Wounded in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Pakistan, 2001-2011 (2011)

Catherine Lutz

Thomas J. Watson, Jr. Family Professor Emerita of Anthropology and International Studies, Thomas J. Watson Jr. School of International and Public Affairs, Brown University
Co-Founder and Strategic Advisor, Costs of War

Catherine Lutz is the co-founder and strategic advisor of the Costs of War project. Lutz is the author of numerous books on the U.S. military and its bases and personnel, including "War and Health: The Medical Consequences of the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan" (ed. with A. Mazzarino, 2019), "Breaking Ranks" (with M. Gutmann, 2010), "The Bases of Empire" (ed., 2009), and "Homefront: A Military City and the American 20th Century" (2001) and a co-founder of the Network of Concerned Anthropologists. She has also conducted research on U.N. peacekeeping in Haiti, South Sudan, Liberia and Lebanon. Lutz is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and numerous other awards for her work. She is past president of the American Ethnological Society, the largest organization of cultural anthropologists in the U.S., and serves on the board of The Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft.

SEE PAPER >
 Human Cost of Post-9/11 Wars: Direct War Deaths in Major War Zones (2021) (2019)
U.S. Reconstruction Aid for Afghanistan: The Dollars and Sense (2015)
Reconstructing Iraq: The Last Year and the Last Decade (2013)
US and Coalition Casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan (2013)