The consequences of war

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Abstract
While most analytical attention is devoted to explaining why wars and militarized disputes occur, there is also some need to focus on what effects or consequences wars and disputes generate. The two strongest reasons for this need are 1) that wars and, to a lesser extent, disputes have had exceptionally strong influences on the way the world works and 2) previous wars and disputes are likely to strongly influence the subsequent probability of more wars and disputes. Nevertheless, impact assessment is rarely straight forward. Nor is anyone likely to be overwhelmed by the number of pertinent studies that have been completed to date. A literature review can offer some sense of what is known, but one of the consequences of war that is equally revealing is how little is known with any degree of certainty. A great deal more work remains to be done.