People in war zones are killed in their homes, in markets, and on roadways, by bombs, bullets, fire, improvised explosive devices (IEDs), and drones. Civilians die at checkpoints, as they are run off the road by military vehicles, when they step on mines or cluster bombs as they collect wood or...
Wars and military operations contribute significantly to climate change. Military jets and vehicles consume petroleum-based fuels at an extremely high rate, and the vehicles used in the war zones produce tons of carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, hydrocarbons, and sulfur dioxide in addition to CO2...
U.S. spending on Israel’s military operations and related U.S operations in the region total at least $22.76 billion and counting. This estimate is conservative; while it includes approved security assistance funding since October 7, 2023, supplemental funding for regional operations, and an...
Military spending shapes the balance of political power in the United States. More than half the military budget goes to contractor companies, especially weapons makers. As contractors obtain lucrative contracts, they gain not only in profitability but also in political influence. They use...
When the U.S. military budget decreased after the Cold War, military contractors initiated a strategy to protect their profits by more widely connecting jobs to military spending. They did this by spreading their subcontracting chains across the United States and creating an entrenched war...
The Costs of War project provides teaching resources for educators seeking to engage their students in interdisciplinary conversations about the post-9/11 wars and their costs, as well as alternatives for a de-militarized future. Educators can access resources like multimedia, visual aids and...
May 15, 2023 The Washington Post
The Costs of War report 'How Death Outlives War' was covered exclusively in the Washington Post.
Assistant Professor, Center for Medicine, Health and Society, Department of Anthropology, Vanderbilt University
Ken MacLeish is the author of Making War at Fort Hood: Life and Uncertainty in a Military Community (Princeton University Press, 2013), an ethnography exploring the everyday experience of war for soldiers, military families, and other military community members. His current research examines how...
U.S. policymakers scarcely considered alternatives to war in the aftermath of 9/11 or in debating the invasion of Iraq. Some of those alternative paradigms for addressing the problem of terror attacks are still available to the U.S....
Jennifer Walkup Jayes is a researcher and organizer. She earned her Master's in Public Anthropology from American University, where her thesis centered on alternatives to the war paradigm for counterterrorism. Jennifer works with refugees in Pittsburgh, PA. ...
Visiting Professor of International and Public Affairs
Lyle J. Goldstein is a Visiting Professor at the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University. At Brown, he is investigating the costs of great power competition with both China and Russia in association with the Costs of War Project at Watson. He is also assisting in...
November 25, 2019 Task & Purpose
Task & Purpose cites Costs of War Project research on the human cost of post-9/11 wars and U.S. spending on the Global War on Terror.
August 19, 2020 Rolling Stone
The Costs of War Project estimates that the war in Iraq has cost American taxpayers $2 trillion since 2003.
January 27, 2023 Politifact
A piece in Politifact (republished in Poynter) cites Costs of War estimates on the costs of the war in Afghanistan in a fact check of a social media post claiming we’ve spent more on Ukraine than Afghanistan.
The Costs of War project conducts and publishes research about the ongoing consequences of the United States post-9/11 wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere; the costs of global U.S. military operations; and the domestic effects of U.S. military spending. Created in 2010 and housed at Brown...
April 14, 2023 War on The Rocks
Costs of War was mentioned in a commentary on War on The Rocks on the Iraq war anniversary.
Associate Professor, University of Notre Dame
Matthew Thomas Payne is the author of Eugene Jarvis: King of the Arcade (Bloomsbury, 2025) and Playing War: Military Video Games after 9/11 (NYU Press, 2016). He is co-author of Ultima and Worldbuilding in the Computer Role-Playing Game (Amherst College Press, 2024), and is a co-editor of the...
Associate Fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies
Miriam Pemberton has studied the U.S. military economy and the means of shrinking it down to size for decades, first as Director of the National Commissionfor Economic Conversion and Disarmament and then as a Research Fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies. With Lawrence Korb, she headed the...
December 29, 2022 New York Sun
Costs of War was cited in the New York Sun on the costs of the war on terror.