The power of fear

On 17th January 2019, Colombia woke up with the news that a car bomb had exploded in Bogotá, its capital city. A car had entered the compound of the General Santander police academy, killed 21 people and left 68 injured. The news were striking as many people thought that bomb attacks in urban areas had …

Is war good for the economy? The example of the United States of America

During the early 1940s, a miracle happened in the United States of America. Coming from a pit of economic stagnation, still chewing on the Great Depression, the economy suddenly took off. Within months, unemployment was eradicated, and people who shortly before had to live off food stamps and thin air found themselves working in brand-new …

The need for regulation in drone strikes

In 2013, Zubair Rehman, a 13-year-old Pakistani boy whose grandmother was killed by a drone strike, said: “now I prefer cloudy days when the drones do not fly. When the sky brightens and becomes blue, the drones return and so does the fear”. With the United States' military programmes striking fear into the hearts of …

An economic theory of war: the Syrian example beyond religion and ethnicity

When we look at the Middle East today, we directly think of inter-religious, inter-ethnic and politically motivated conflicts triggered by some event. Take, for example, the Syrian civil war and the first Arab spring demonstrations there, which took place in the city of Daraa. This raises the question: can we create a general theory of …