all warfare and conflict stories

Scholar makes robots that detect land mines

50443248 — Thu, 28 May 2009 14:29:33 -0400

On Oct. 10, 2005 — he remembers the date exactly — Thrishantha Nanayakkara was driving down a country road, headed for a science workshop at Jaffna Central College, a high school in the far north of Sri Lanka. The event was designed to distract potential child soldiers from the allure of war.

His cell phone rang. It was a government official, with a tip-off. “Turn back,” the caller said, in so many words, “or you will be killed.”

Mental casualties of Vietnam War persist

Thu, 12 Jul 2007 15:45:51 -0400

More than 30 years after the end of the war in Vietnam, the effect of lingering stress on Americans who fought there continues to cause stress among researchers.

A new study finds that almost 19 percent of the more than three million U.S. troops who served in Vietnam returned with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). It's a condition that left them with invasive memories, nightmares, loss of concentration, feelings of guilt, irritability and, in some cases, major depression. More than ten years after the war, 10 percent of them still could not leave the war behind.

New calculations suggest economic cost of Iraq war much larger than previously recognized

70652986 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 06:23:46 -0400

A paper presented to the annual Allied Social Sciences Association meeting in Boston, in a session jointly sponsored by the American Economic Association and the Economists for Peace and Security, suggests that the costs of the Iraq war are much higher than previously reckoned, with conservative to moderate estimates ranging from slightly less than a trillion dollars to more than $2 trillion.

The joint paper, prepared by Harvard Universitys Kennedy School of Government budget expert Linda Bilmes and Columbia University professor and Nobel Prize winner Joseph E. Stiglitz, recalculates both the budgetary and economic costs of the war.

The price tag calculated by Bilmes and Stiglitz varies significantly from the $50 billion to $60 billion figure estimated by former Office of Management and Budget (OMB) director Mitch Daniels shortly before the war began.

The paper estimates the costs on two different scenarios for Americas involvement in Iraq, both of which predict that U.S. troops deployed in Iraq will drop from the current 160,000 to 136,000 in 2006. It expands on traditional estimates first by including long-term budgetary costs of Americas involvement in Iraq. For instance, it provides an estimate of the life-time disability and health care costs of the 16,000 injured (some 20 percent with serious brain injuries), and the increased costs of recruitment into both the National Guard and the armed forces.

The paper goes on to analyze the social costs to the economy, recognizing that, for instance, payments for those killed are only $500,000, far less than standard government estimates of the life-time economic cost of a death ($6.1 million to $6.5 million). Similarly, disability payments are markedly lower than the value of lost earnings. Finally, the paper provides a range of estimates of the macro-economic costs. While arguing that much of the increase in the price of oil can be attributed to the Iraq war, it estimates the overall effect on the economy if only $5 per barrel of the increase is due to the war. It also calculates the impact on the economy in the short run and in the long run if a proportion of the money spent on the Iraq war were spent in other ways, including on investments in the United States.

The paper identifies a number of other costs, some potentially quite large, but the quantification of which is more problematic. The implication, however, is that even the moderate estimate may significantly underestimate the cost of Americas involvement in Iraq.

Ninety percent of U.S. wounded survive

70652986 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 05:36:53 -0400

For an article in the Dec. 9, 2004 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, Atul Gawande, an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School and a surgeon at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, gathered data on casualties and talked with surgical teams that served near the front lines in Iraq. He concludes that the "military medical system has made fundamental - and apparently effective - changes in the strategies and systems of battle care, even since the Persian Gulf War." In that 1990-91 conflict, 24 percent of the wounded died, or more than twice the rate in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2001. The reduced death toll has occurred despite the limited number of medical personnel available. Gawande says that the shortage means that the Army keeps "no more than 30 to 50 general surgeons and 10 to 15 orthopedic surgeons in Iraq." This relatively small cadre attends a fighting force growing to 150,000 troops. The surgeons are deployed in small teams of 20 people called Forward Surgical Teams (FST). "Each FST is equipped to move directly behind troops and establish a functioning hospital with four ventilator-equipped beds and two operating tables within a difficult-to-fathom 60 minutes," Gawande explains.

Researcher studies effects of terrorist attacks on office workers near WTC site

70652986 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 05:22:12 -0400

Since 1971, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health has conducted 1,200 investigations into indoor air. Last fall, the agency undertook an investigation unlike all the others. Aided by a Harvard School of Public Health scientist, Ashok Nimgade, a NIOSH research team evaluated the physical and mental health problems of office workers near "ground zero" of the World Trade Center attacks in New York City. The study revealed that workers who reported higher stress and depression levels were also more likely to report physical symptoms, such as coughing and skin irritations. The study also revealed that workers who expressed their feelings to confidantes were less likely to have physical complaints.

Undergraduates observe Rwandan attempts at justice

70652986 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 05:24:04 -0400

The Rwandan genocide memorial was a tiny one-room church, pervaded
still by a penetrating stench. On a table in the church was a pile of
human skulls and femurs, a startling reminder of the people who sought
shelter there in 1994 when the killers came calling.

"It just struck me that in this one church 5,000 people died, innocent
people, and the world didn't blink an eye," said Harvard junior Leila
Chirayath.

Chirayath and five other Harvard undergraduates spent six weeks in
Rwanda last summer studying how the Rwandan government is seeking
justice for the estimated 500,000 mostly minority Tutsis killed when
the small east African country erupted in vicious widespread ethnic
violence.

Structuring 21st century government for homeland defense

70652986 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 05:22:51 -0400

A report by Kennedy School of Government lecturer Elaine C. Kamarck, “Applying 21st Century Government to the Challenge of Homeland Security,” offers some specific recommendations: -- Create a National Terrorism Intelligence Center within the FBI to fuse intelligence gathering capabilities of national security agencies with investigative resources of law enforcement -- Increase protection at the borders with the establishment of a Border Patrol Agency -- Provide market incentives for the development of vaccines or drug treatments that could be utilized in response to bio-terror attacks -- Establish guidelines that allow for the use of “racial profiling” by law enforcement to isolate potential terrorist suspects; -- Develop protocols allowing law enforcement access to data contained in the vast databases of the private sector to protect the nation from terrorists -- Grant consular officials access to international crime and terrorist databases -- Deputize state and local officials so they can arrest illegal aliens -- Grant FEMA additional resources and allow it to act as the lead agency for preparing and coordinating federal, state, and local government response to terrorist events -- Require all medium-to-large size American cities to develop an “all hazard” approach to emergencies The work was supported by a grant from The PricewaterhouseCoopers Endowment for the Business of Government.

Physicians warn of nuclear terrorist threat

70652986 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 05:19:30 -0400

In a new study, Lachlan Forrow, director of ethics support services at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. and his co-authors used software developed by the U.S. Defense Threat Reduction Agency to calculate the impact of a 12.5 kiloton nuclear explosion –- the same size as the bomb dropped on Hiroshima –- in the port area of New York City. They found that such an attack would result in the immediate deaths of 52,000 people, while another 44,000 individuals could be expected to develop cases of radiation sickness, of which 10,000 would likely be fatal. According to their calculations, radiation from fallout would cause another 200,000 deaths and several hundred thousand cases of radiation sickness. Furthermore, they say, in the wake of such an attack, little could be done to help survivors: More than 1,000 hospital beds would likely be destroyed. The researchers did the study to make the point that in the aftermath of September 11, the threat of nuclear terrorism is among the most real –- and most dire –- of the United States' current public health concerns. The report was published in the Feb. 8, 2002 issue of the British Medical Journal.

SPH professor finds Taliban inmates dying, in need of care

70652986 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 05:19:44 -0400

Jennifer Leaning is a professor in the Harvard School of Public Health's Department of Population and International Health. She is also one of Physicians for Human Rights' founders. In January 2002, Leaning traveled to Afghanistan to investigate the conditions under which Taliban prisoners were being held. While the investigators found no evidence that the prisoner were being tortured or intentionally mistreated, they also found that the crowded conditions and lack of resources were killing them just as surely as a firing squad. Leaning said she believes the U.S. government shares responsibility for the care of these men.

Indivisible territory and ethnic war

70652986 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 05:19:42 -0400

Monica Duffy Toft is assistant professor of public policy at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government and assistant director of the Olin Institute for Strategic Studies at Harvard's Weatherhead Center for International Affairs. Toft has studied the causes of ethnic war and developed a theory based on territory. She says that "Attempts to negotiate a resolution short of war will fail when: (1) the ethnic minority demands sovereignty over the territory it occupies, and (2) the state views that territory as indivisible.

Survey shows Americans not panicking over anthrax

70652986 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 05:16:35 -0400

In the wake of biological terror attacks perpetrated by unknown persons sending anthrax-laced letters through the U.S. mail, the Harvard School of Public Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation launched their Survey Project on Americans' Response to Biological Terrorism. The first report of the ongoing survey, released on Nov. 8, 2001, found that most Americans think they and their families have a relatively low risk of contracting anthrax or smallpox. According to the survey, Americans believe it is far more likely that they or someone in their immediate family will get the flu (73% very or somewhat likely), or be injured in a fall (50%) or automobile accident (41%) during the next 12 months than that they will contract anthrax (14%) or smallpox (9%). The families of postal workers had a different perspective, however. About one-third (32%) of Americans from households where someone works for the U.S. Postal Service believe that they or someone in their family are very or somewhat likely to contract anthrax. And though most Americans think they are at relatively low risk of contracting anthrax or smallpox, a majority (57%) have taken one or more precautions in response to reports of bioterrorism.

Strong student support found for war

70652986 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 05:16:37 -0400

American college students strongly support U.S. war objectives in Afghanistan aimed against the Taliban and Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda terrorist network, according to a survey conducted by the Institute of Politics at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government. The survey was released in early November 2001. Support among undergraduates for air strikes and ground troops was high, though about 10 percent below that of the general population, the survey found. For instance, 79 percent of college students support U.S.-led air strikes, compared with 92 percent of the general population as reported by an ABC News survey on Oct. 8 and 9. And 68 percent of college students favor the use of ground troops, compared with 80 percent of the general population as reported by a CNN survey on Oct. 19 and 20. This poll was part of an annual study of college students' attitudes toward public service and government. It is unique because it was created and analyzed by a group Harvard college undergraduates, led by Erin Ashwell '02 and Trevor Dryer '02, with the assistance of John DellaVolpe, president of Boston-based opinion research firm SWR/DellaVolpe.

U.S. stepped aside during Rwandan genocide

70652986 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 05:12:51 -0400

Samantha Power, executive director of the John F. Kennedy School's Carr Center for Human Rights Policy, conducted a three-year-long investigation into what the United States government knew, didn't know, and chose to do during the Rwandan genocide in 1994. Based on hundreds of interviews and hundreds of pages of declassified government documents, Power's conclusion finds that the government decided to step aside during the mass killings. Among Power's findings: -- Bureaucratic infighting slowed the U.S. response to the genocide. -- The U.S. refused to "jam" extremist radio broadcasts inciting the killing because of costs and concern with international law. -- Secretary of State Warren Christopher did not authorize officials to use the term "genocide" until six weeks after the massacres began, and even then, U.S. officials waited another three weeks before using the term in public. Power's report appears in the September 2001 edition of The Atlantic Monthly.

New report highlights safe, secure method for managing spent nuclear fuel

70652986 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 07:09:37 -0400

A joint Harvard University/University of Tokyo team of nuclear energy, nonproliferation, and waste management experts concludes in a new study that technologies are available to store spent nuclear fuel from hundreds of nuclear power plants around the world safely and securely for decades to come. To overcome political obstacles that have limited options for storage of spent nuclear fuel, the report urges a new, more democratic, more flexible, and more transparent approach to managing such material. The new study, Interim Storage of Spent Nuclear Fuel: A Safe, Flexible, and Cost-Effective Near-Term Approach to Spent Fuel Management, addresses the technical, economic, safety, security, and political issues surrounding storage of spent nuclear fuel in both the United States and Japan.