War or Health: A Reader

ISBN-13: 9781856499514 / Angielski / Miękka / 2001 / 672 str.

Ilkka Taipale

Opis

This major new reader has been put together by Physicians for Social Responsibility in Finland, a member of IPPNW, the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, the recipient of the Nobel Prize in 1985. Comprising 70 articles, specially commissioned for this volume and written by leading authorities in their field, it provides an unusually wide-ranging examination of the interface between warfare and human health and society. Topics include: - The changing character of wars and their increasing effects on civilians. - The direct and indirect consequences of war for demographic trends, famine, chronic disease, psychological disorders, human rights violations and the environment - as well as the impact on specific population groups like women, children, old people, those mentally ill. - The medical and health aspects of different kinds of weapons - conventional, anti-personnel, small arms, landmines, chemical, biological, nuclear, non-lethal. - The changing roles of health professionals in war - including case studies from Iraq, Bosnia, Somalia and West Africa. - The multiple factors facilitating the outbreak of wars and fuelling their continuation - the arms trade, social tensions, the role of media, psychological and sociological theories of violence, and war as a social institution. - Efforts to regulate the worst effects of modern warfare, and ultimately to prevent it - the various international conventions, conflict monitoring and resolution, organizations like the International Red Cross and specific NGOs like Medecins sans Frontiers, Amnesty International and IPPNW. In a world where the post-cold war era has proved a profound disappointment as regards any diminution in the incidence of armed conflict, this up-to-date and comprehensive source book will prove invaluable to health professionals and social scientists as well as those active in human rights, peace and development.