In the Battle of the Somme in 1919, more than 20,000 British troops were killed and a further 40,000 were injured. And that was just on the first day. After four and a half months the Allies had advanced less than 12 kilometres at a cost of 420,000 British, 200,000 French and 500,000 German casualties.*

Today most of the victims of war are civilians, many of them women and children.* The British medical journal Lancet has estimated that 100,000 Iraqi civilians have died in Iraq since the invasion in 2001.* Landmines maim or kill over 15,000 civilians each year*, and 300,000 children are serving as soldiers in armed conflicts around the world*.

War is neither necessary nor inevitable. In 1948, Costa Rica abolished its armed forces and became an oasis of peace and prosperity in what was then one of the most war-torn regions on Earth. Dialogue and negotiation offer a practical and achievable alternative to armed conflict. Redirecting the world’s trillion-dollar military expenditure to peaceful purposes would help to create the prosperity and stability on which peace depends. But for this to happen we need to abolish the “us and them” divisions that create conflict between human beings and ultimately lead to war.

This section contains information and links on The human cost of war, The economic cost of war, Nuclear proliferation, The arms trade and Conflict resolution.