Chapter 5: Consequences of Armed Conflicts

Vocabulary terms and definitions focusing on the social, economic, and demographic consequences of armed conflicts as presented in Chapter 5.3.

International humanitarian law

A body of law that prohibits the targeting of civilians or wounded soldiers, the starvation of individuals, and the use of nuclear or chemical weapons, while stressing the protection of women and children.

Internally displaced persons

People who are forced to flee their homes due to armed conflicts or danger but remain within the borders of their own country.

Refugees

Displaced individuals who leave their own country and move to another country in search of a safe place to live.

Genocide

An attempt to destroy a people or population group, either by killing its members or deporting them.

Social consequences of armed conflicts

Severe humanitarian impacts of war, including deliberate targeting of civilians, crippled healthcare systems, unvaccinated children, lifelong multi-generational psychological trauma, and mass displacement.

Economic consequences of armed conflicts

The crippling of an economy through diversion of funds to weapons, uncultivated fields, halted factories, loss of tourism and foreign investment, and massive reconstruction costs, contrasted with war profiteering by weapons makers and traders of illicit goods.

Age structure graph dip

A deep contraction or indentation visible on a population pyramid that indicates a high number of casualties resulting from an armed conflict.

Baby boom (birth surge)

A demographic bulge appearing beneath a conflict-related casualty dip on an age structure graph, occurring when peace follows war.

1994 Rwandan genocide

A massacre targeting a specific ethnic group in which Hutus killed more than half a million Tutsis in Rwanda.

Pol Pot's regime

The regime in Cambodia under which $2\text{ million}$ Cambodians—representing $30\%$ of the population—were killed between 1975 and 1979.