The SIPRI Update for September 2013 is out now — read it online, or subscribe to receive the SIPRI Update in your inbox each month.
In the latest SIPRI Essay Tilman Brück discusses the costs of the continuing conflict in Syria. He writes:
The international community, and Western powers in particular, appear to have pulled back from the brink of a military intervention in Syria in response to the alleged use of chemical weapons by the regime of Syrian President Bashir al-Assad. However, the threat of a direct intervention in the conflict in Syria, which has already claimed over 100 000 lives, remains real. Now, more than ever, we need to understand the real costs of war and the benefits of peace.
The essay concludes:
Overall, the wars of the last 50 years have made the world much poorer. In other words, now is the chance to point out to the international community that peace in Syria has more benefits fighting the war, with or without Western intervention.