C&C member Rod Abouharb, Associate Professor of International Relations at the Department of Political Science, has published a new article in the Journal of Human Rights.
In his article, he assesses the impact of interstate and civil wars on infant mortality rates since 1950. When writing the article, Rod was interested in understanding the consequences of different types of conflicts as well as the differences between the immediate and cumulative effects of conflict on infant mortality as an indicator of public health. In addition to the different types of conflicts, he finds that different conflict actors have varying effects on infant mortality rates. In contrast to previous research, arguing that states guided by the Geneva conventions better protect civilians from harm when they fight each other, he finds that interstate wars have the most deleterious impacts on infant mortality. The tragic example of Russia bombing maternity hospitals in Ukraine is a case in point. The article hopes to refocus our attention to how states fight with each other and the protections they have in place to minimise harm for non-combatants.
The article is now available and can be found here: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14754835.2022.2122786