Fighting has been as old as humanity, as our early ancestors and predecessors fought for dominance ,for protection, for conquest , and so many other reasons numerous to mention,
An itemized total sum of deaths in wars and conflicts “killed or allowed to die by human decision” of approximately 231 million for the 100 years of the 20th Century.
This is pointing out to the insane amount of lives that has been lost today, thanks to ceaseless succession of deadly and pointless wars ,during world war two alone 80 to 85 million lives were lost, and the 21st century doesn’t get easier. With the continuation of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the latest war between Israel and Hamas and political violence elsewhere in the world, more than 170,000 lives were lost to war and violent conflicts throughout 2023, according to data collected by the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project
However, the impacts of wars extend beyond loss of life and destruction of properties Worth millions of dollars. Wars have always had a significant impact on the global economy, and the current state of affairs is no exception. With ongoing conflicts in various parts of the world, the economic repercussions are being felt far and wide.
A very applicable example of this is the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine which has left remarkable impact on both economies, one of the immediate effect of walls is that it disrupts trade and commerce within countries involved , as seen in the Israeli Palestinian war the trade routes can be Disrupted leading to a fracture in the flow and supply of course on services and this may cause the prices of goods and services to go high, As companies on ships would resort to longer but safer routes so as to transport goods and services to their respective locations .
Another stellar example that demonstrates the economic impact of wars ,is the fact that Governments will have to increase their defence and military budgets which initiates a cut on other areas like education ,health and infrastructure development ,in Addition,when governments have to reconstruct and rebuild war torn areas of their countries after wars, the cost can leave strains on their economy.
Aside the economic problems caused directly by governments during the course of a war, a war also has a negative impact on investor confidence and financial constraints, this is so because investors would likely avoid investing in areas where there would likely be threat to life and properties, as that would indicate that even their investments would not be safe, thus leading to a dramatic decrease in the rate of foreign direct investments.And this would affect the economic growth of such a country and further aggravate the bad economic situation.
And it doesn’t just stop there it goes on, another factor to be considered is the humanitarian crisis that follows a war ,like internally displacing the population, destruction of infrastructure, and eventual loss of human capital , this leaves lasting impacts on a county’s economy as the government would most likely spend a lot to be able to take care of these( idps), and this might leave strains once more on the economy and as well hinder economic growth.
The impact of wars on economies recently has been found to affect not only the countries involved, as is the case with the crisis going on in the middle East today, the houthis have been attacking commercial ships and these has led the sailors to take a much longer route along the African coasts, and this results to inflation in the price of such Commodity, another example is that a full scale war in the middle East today would have an impact on the price of oil today , which would have far reaching effects across world economies.
Wars have far reaching and tremendously devastating effects on the global economy as has been seen recently, in the disruption of trade , increase in government spendings both on defense and providing assistance to IDPs, decrease in human capital , and the humanitarian impacts, it has thus become essential for the global Community to come together to see ways to resolve disputes amicably, and avoid wars, leading to a better world economy and stable society.